Back in the Game
by 1catfish8
Summary: Sequel to "Time Out" - Stephanie plots her return to Trenton. What will happen when she takes her new confidence and abilities back to her hometown?
1. Chapter 1

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

/

Previously:

_As I watched him drive away, I thought about the past several months. My life had changed a lot in that time, for the better. I was financially independent, I learned more about myself, and gained some new skills along the way. While I didn't plan to be in Jacksonville long, when the plan changed, I was able to adapt and roll with it. All in all, I was truly proud of myself for the first time in years._

_That being said, it was now time to think about wrapping things up in Jacksonville so I could stage my return to Trenton. I had a relationship I needed to nurture, and people to show the changes I've made in my life. I still wasn't sure what I wanted to do when I got back to Trenton, but a few ideas were rolling around in my head. _(taken from Time Out Ch30)

/

Back in the Game

Ch1

Spring in Jacksonville. The grass has finally turned green and the daffodils and tulips are blooming. Doris and I were sitting outside on lawn chairs in my front yard watching Steve and Doris' grandson, Jimmy, paint the shutters and eves on my house. Yes, that's what I said. My house. Late last spring, my long-lost great-aunt, Elizabeth Price, made me her sole beneficiary and I inherited her house and a fair amount of money. I'd been living in Jacksonville, Illinois ever since. A lot has happened since then.

Ranger, my super sexy, totally badass mentor, agreed to try a relationship with me. He actually stayed with me in Jacksonville for a few weeks around the new year after he returned from a months-long mission. It was surprisingly easy to slip into a relationship with him. Since then, he and I have made several trips between Trenton and Jacksonville for visits. I was scheduled to visit Trenton in a few weeks and already had my plane ticket, but Ranger told me last night he'd been called for a mission and was leaving in a few hours and wasn't sure how long he'd be gone. It was about this time last year that he'd been called away for several months. Hopefully it wouldn't be that long this time.

My house renovation is finally nearing its end. Steve wasn't joking when I hired him. He told me it'd probably take longer because he had a smaller crew than some of the bigger companies in town. I had no complaints about his work. Steve was into historical preservation, and did a good job of updating the house into the 21st century, while still maintaining most of my home's original character. My house went from a twelve plus bedroom monstrosity with no closets and one bathroom to a six bedroom, four and a half bathroom family friendly home with a separate one bedroom one bath in-law apartment on the ground floor. The kitchen was no longer sixties avocado green chic. Every bedroom had a good-sized closet. All of the hardwood floors had been carefully refinished. All of the original trim had been stripped and refinished as well. Steve even managed to re-use the extra original wood-panelled bedroom doors on the new closets. Nothing was wasted.

Doris recovered pretty well from her broken hip. Her grandson, Jimmy, was her only living family and he was in Afghanistan when Doris was injured. He finally made it home and did a great job of caring for his grandmother. I liked Jimmy. He was a good guy, and he reminded me a lot of the Merry Men back in Trenton. Jimmy was mostly unemployed. Taking care of Doris took most of his time once he got home. Recently, he's been helping Steve out a little bit. I think he was starting to get a little antsy though.

Jane Holmes, the crazy woman who caused a heck of a lot of trouble, was in a secure psychiatric facility after it was determined that she was not mentally competent to stand trial. Jane pushed Doris down, causing Doris' broken hip. She attempted to steal a bunch of gold bars that were hidden in my basement. She blew up my car. She vandalised my house. Needless to say, I was not sorry to see the last of her.

The gold bars were back in the custody of the U.S. Treasury, after a months long investigation into their ownership. They were stolen in a bank robbery several decades ago and Jane's Grandfather Price hid them in a secret room in the basement of my house. I may not have been able to keep the gold, but the authorities did give me a $100,000 reward for turning the gold in.

/

Once Steve and Jimmy finished the shutters and eves, the work would be almost complete on the house. There were still a few rooms that needed paint, but everything big was finished. Doris and Jimmy even helped with a little landscaping work. Well, Doris did the planning and directing. Jimmy and I actually did the hard labor. It was a huge improvement over the weedy lawn and hideous bushes from before. My landscaping abilities ran more to mowing the weeds to all one level and taking the hedge clippers to the bushes just enough to get to the front door without scratching my arms. Doris had us till and re-seed the lawn. The ugly bushes were ripped out. Tasteful, easy-maintenance perennials and shrubs now graced the front of the house.

I told Doris a while back that she should have been an interior decorator, after she and Steve surprised me with a luxurious master suite. After seeing her landscape design abilities, I knew the master suite wasn't a fluke. She had a good eye for color and detail. As we sat in our lawn chairs watching the guys work, I voiced a thought that'd been tumbling around in my head for a week or so.

"Doris, I have a job for you. I need your help and I'll pay you. Are you interested?"

"Well, dear, I don't know. What's the job?"

"The house is about ready to put on the market. Most of the rooms are empty, just because I don't have enough furniture to fill the house. I don't want to buy a bunch of stuff, right before I move out. What I want is your expertise. I want to use the stuff I have and move it from room to room so we can get pictures of each room filled with the appropriate type of furniture so buyers will see the room's purpose. I think they call it staging. I know that staging is supposed to help sell houses and in theory the house should be furnished for viewings. I was thinking I could have an easel in each room with a big poster of how we temporarily staged it. Does that make sense?"

"Have you been watching HGTV again, Stephanie?" Doris asked with a grin. "It's a different take on staging, but I think it could work. Of course I'll help you. You don't need to pay me though. I enjoy doing things like this, even though I'm no expert."

Doris is pretty hard-headed, so we'd have to negotiate the pay thing. We went back and forth a bit, but finally I agreed to only pay Steve for his help in moving stuff around. We decided we'd had enough of watching the guys work and went inside so Doris could look over my existing furniture. Doris was still using a cane and didn't move as fast as she used to, so we took our time.

The next few weeks were a concentrated education in home decoration. I had a few different bed sets, but not enough for every room. Doris suggested we mix and match the bed sets with different chairs and dressers so it wouldn't be as obvious that we were re-using them in the pictures. I chauffeured her to Wal-Mart where she picked out a few inexpensive but pretty reversible quilts. We'd use one side of the quilt in one bedroom photo and the other side in another bedroom photo. She also picked out some inexpensive modern poster art and frames at the big discount store. I had several original works of art and a bunch of antique prints, but Doris thought seeing more modern pieces mixed with the old might be attractive to potential buyers. She even chose the paint colors for the rooms that still needed paint and explained why she picked the colors. I learned a lot, and I was glad I'd asked her for help.

Steve was a big help and didn't complain when Doris changed her mind about a chair and had him carting in potential replacements. The photos turned out awesome, if I do say so myself. You'd never know that we were using the same pieces in different combinations unless you looked very closely. Doris did a good job of distracting from the furniture with the different bedding and art work. We even tackled the downstairs rooms. The library shelves were still mostly empty, but Doris leant me several from her own collection so the room had a minimalist feel instead of just empty. Steve was recruited to cart around armchairs and chaise lounges from the library to the small sitting room to the formal living room. Again, Doris distracted from the furniture with art, rugs, and different throw pillows. It was amazing!

I contacted a local realtor to come take a look at the house. The woman acted every enthusiastic as she toured the house, but then it was her job. She liked the photo staging thing that Doris helped me with and the easels set up in the empty rooms held poster sized photos of the furniture filled rooms. She also liked the history of the home and it's reported connection to the Underground Railroad. The number she gave me as a tentative asking price seemed a little optimistic to me considering the area, but even if it closed for less, I'd still come out way ahead. Steve did good work, but he didn't charge me excessively.

The time quickly came to make a decision on whether or not to use my plane ticket to Trenton. Ranger wouldn't be there, which was the main reason for the trip. But, I could always hang out with Connie, Lula, Mary Lou, and my family. I also wanted to start looking for a place to live for when I finally got back to Trenton for good. Ranger and I hadn't discussed living together, and while I loved spending time with him, I also liked having my own space. Mental musings complete, I decided to make the trip and started packing my bags.


	2. Chapter 2

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Ch2

I was surprised to see Tank waiting for me at the baggage claim in Newark. I knew one of the Merry Men would be picking me up, but I wasn't expecting Tank. Tank was the Man in Charge when Ranger disappeared into the wind, which meant he was usually pretty busy.

"Hi Big Guy!" Tank pulled me in for a hug and squeezed me tight.

"Hi Little Girl, how was your flight?"

"I'm still a nervous flier, but it's slowly getting easier. I'm happy to see you, but didn't expect you to be my chauffeur today. What's up with that?"

"I needed a break. The paperwork is getting out of hand. Are you ready to head out?" I nodded and he easily picked up both my large suitcases and led me out to the waiting black SUV. He hefted my bags into the rear cargo area and then opened the rear passenger door for me. I climbed in and saw Bobby sitting in the driver's seat.

"Bobby! I get to see two of my favorite guys at one time. What'd I do to deserve two members of the core team?"

"Bomber, I'll gladly play hooky to pick you up at the airport anytime. When Tank found out where I was going, he was desperate to come with me to get out of the office. Have you had lunch yet? We're lookin' to drag this out as long as possible before we have to go back to the office."

"You know me. I can always eat. What's wrong at the office?"

"Well..." Bobby stretched out. He exchanged a glance with Tank.

"Spill it, guys. What's wrong?"

"Technically, it's nothing bad," Bobby replied. "Business has really picked up in the past several months. We're struggling to keep up and maintain our quality standards. We've hired a few new guys, but we probably would have rejected them if we weren't so desperate for personnel. They aren't exactly capable of independent thought and need a lot of hand-holding. The paperwork is piling up faster than we can process it. It's hard to complain since it's all a result of increased business, but at the same time..." he trailed off.

"So I take it this was a bad time for Ranger to leave?"

"Pretty much." Just then, Bobby pulled into a parking lot of a Mexican restaurant. The hostess seated us at the rear of the dining room and Bobby and Tank both sat with their backs to the wall, of course.

"What's the solution?" I asked around a mouthful of chips and salsa.

"We need to hire some competent guys. We need to get this paperwork knocked down so that the core team can spend more time in the field," Tank answered.

We munched on chips and salsa for a few minutes while a few ideas bounced around in my head.

Tank broke the silence. "Little Girl, I smell somethin' burning. What are you thinking about?"

"I have a temporary solution to the paperwork. I have a possibility on the staff problem." I mumbled. I was busy turning around the possibilities in my head and figuring out how to make one of them work.

"Let's hear it."

"Did you know I have a business degree?" I asked. Both men shook their heads. "I do. I was thinking that I'm gonna be in Trenton for a week. What if I helped knock down the pile of paper while I'm here. Maybe that would help you get ahead enough to go back to field work."

Tank and Bobby shook their heads. "No, Bomber. I'd love to say yes, but you're here on vacation. You can't work."

"Sure I can. It's not really a vacation. I'm unemployed. Every day is a vacation for me. My main reason for this trip was to spend time with Ranger, but he's not here. I can do paperwork for you during the day and still hang out with friends and family in the evenings."

I could tell I almost had them so I pushed a little more. "Besides, I was wondering what I was going to do all day while I was here. I don't want to hang out with my mom and grandma all day, every day that I'm here with the exception of meal times. You'll be doing me a favor." Since Mom and I have improved our mother-daughter relationship, I really don't mind hanging out with her and Grandma Mazur, but the guys didn't need to know that.

"Okay. We'll give it a shot. You can handle the business papers and we'll keep handling the incident reports. Tomorrow at 8:00?"

"I'll be there."

"Do we need to send someone to drag you out of bed?"

"I. Will. Be. There." I gritted my teeth. You'd think they'd be a little nicer to me, since I was going to help them out. "Talk to Lester and Hector. They'll tell you about my new abilities to get out of bed at the crack ass o'dawn." Thankfully our food arrived at that moment, and our attention was quickly diverted to our meals.

/

I parked Big Blue in the garage on Haywood at 7:50 the next morning. I'd even got up in time to go for a run before work. I wasn't dressed in total Rangeman black since work wasn't really in my plans when I packed my bags, but I did manage a little black t-shirt paired with dark blue skinny jeans and knee-high black leather boots with a three-inch stiletto heel. I sent a little finger wave to the camera near the elevator. When I arrived on the 5th floor, I was greeted eagerly by Lester. "Beautiful, you're early! I totally won this bet. I knew you'd be here. Pay up, dudes!"

I stalked my way to Tank's office. With my hand on his door, I turned my head and said through clenched teeth, "Lester, I appreciate your confidence in me. As for the rest of you, if I ever find out you've bet on me again, I will confiscate the pot and donate 100 percent to charity. Got it?" There was silence on the floor. I put my hands on my hips and raised my eyebrows. "Got it?" I repeated.

"Yes, ma'am," someone replied. A bunch of heads bobbed along with that response.

"I love you guys, but the bets really piss me off and I'm sick of it. It's time for it to stop. I appreciate your cooperation," I finished with a smile and finger wave and got several sheepish smiles in return.

I turned back around to knock on Tank's door only to find the door open and the big man himself standing in front of me. "Little Girl, that was hot!" Tank breathed. His face froze and he continued, "Don't tell Ranger I said that. I like the new confidence, by the way."

"Thanks, Tank. So where do you want me to start?" I looked past him and saw that his desk, guest chair, and couch were all piled high with stacks upon stacks for paper.

"How about payroll? Then maybe you can move on to billing. I need to run over to the office supply store and pick up some more paper and a few other things. You can work in here while I'm gone." Tank quickly showed me how to do the payroll before he almost ran out the door. I sat in Tank's chair and pulled the payroll stack towards me. Tank's computer was locked, so I tried my old log-in, curious to see if it still worked. It did! After logging in, I opened a blank spreadsheet and started typing in employee names and then did a little formatting. Relatively quickly, the payroll was finished. I saved it and emailed it to Tank. I created a template of a time sheet and emailed it to all of Rangeman Trenton with instructions on how to fill it out and how to send it back each week. I also posted it on the server that everyone had access to. I fixed it so that it'd be easy for Tank to check the info and then get the info from the emailed time sheets onto a master payroll sheet, also on the computer. The final product could be emailed to the accountant. I was kind of surprised that Rangeman didn't have a better system for this.

This whole process took about three hours and I was ready for a snack by the time I finished. I stood up and stretched and made my way to the break room. "What happened to Tank?" I asked the guy on monitors. He must be new, I didn't recognize him.

"He's in the elevator now, ma'am," New Guy said nervously.

"First, call me Stephanie or Steph. I'm not a fan of being called ma'am." New Guy nodded in response. "Second, what's your name?"

"Eugene, ma'am, er, Stephanie."

"It's nice to meet you Eugene. How long have you worked here, Eugene?"

"About a month now." Ah. He had to be one of the guys Tank was complaining about yesterday. He seemed like he might need a lot of hand-holding. About that time, Tank stepped out of the elevator pushing a dolly loaded down with boxes of paper reams.

"Did you give up?" he asked when he saw me.

"Nope, I just finished payroll and decided to take a break before diving back in."

"You're joking," Tank said flatly.

"Nope. Come with me, I have an easier way for you to do this in the future."

Tank followed me into his office and I demonstrated what I'd done. "It normally takes me all day to do payroll and you finished in just a couple of hours. This new system you rigged up will enable me to get it done that quickly as well?"

"Oh sure, probably faster. There are actually real programs for this kind of stuff, this is just something I rigged on my own. You might look into investing in a real program. It could save you even more time and offer more functions and features."

"Damn."

"There are probably things you can do on the computer to speed up the client billing process as well as the guys' incident reports. I'm not really a computer expert and I'm definitely not a computer programmer. You might get with someone like Hector to see if you can get these things more user-friendly and speedier, not to mention cutting down on your paper usage."

"Damn," Tank repeated. He shook his head. "We're security experts, not business people. I kinda always thought there had to be a better way, but didn't know what it'd be."

"Instead of hiring just hiring for security positions, you might look into hiring an office manager. That would free up a lot of time for you guys."

Tank bobbed his head. "That's an excellent idea, Steph."

I tackled client invoices next and spent the rest of the day working on them. By the time I left at 5:00, my shoulders were cramped and I felt like my eyes were about to cross from so much reading. I waved at the guys and promised to be back in the morning.

/

Mom made me a pineapple upside down cake for dessert, which helped make up for the fact that the dining room was practically standing room only. The Kloughn family was there, in addition to Grandma Mazur's latest boyfriend. I was surprised to see Joe Morelli as well. I shot Mom a look, thinking she was trying to get us back together. She shook her head and then Joe spoke up.

"I ran into your mother earlier this afternoon and she invited me for dinner. It's not a fix-up, Steph. I just wanted to see you. Plus, your mom makes a mean pot roast."

Dinner was just like old times and I had an eye twitch by the end of the meal. Mom wasn't harping on me, which was very nice. However, Grandma continued to make inappropriate comments about her new stud-muffin and Albert seemed incapable of taking his foot out of his mouth. Val looked like she was ready to deck him within five minutes of sitting down at the table. Mary Alice whinnied loudly throughout the meal and Angie educated us with gruesome details from a recent frog dissection she'd done in science class.

I walked Joe out to his car after dinner. We leaned against the vehicle. "So, Cupcake, how are things in your world?"

I told him about Ranger, the house, and how I was planning on returning to Trenton soon. I then asked about him.

"It's good," he said with a grin. He told me he'd been seeing a nurse at St. Francis for the past few months and he thought she might be the One. I was happy that he'd found someone who hopefully shared his goals for the future. Joe told a few stories about some of his more bizarre cases and then said he needed to get going. We hugged and I returned to the house, feeling good about the state of my friendship with Joe.

I called Mary Lou to arrange some girl time with her. She told me she'd get Lenny to watch the kids tomorrow night so we could go out to dinner. I texted Lula and Connie and worked out that I'd bring lunch to the bonds office in a few days. Turning on my laptop, I decided to do a little research on local real estate for sale. I was positive that I didn't want to live in the 'Burg, but I wasn't really interested in moving to the 'burbs either. I wrote down several addresses of places I might be interested in, and powered down the computer. I needed to get some good sleep so I could be back at Rangeman bright and early.

/

The rest of the week followed a similar pattern. I'd get up early to go for a run and then be in Tank's office by 8:00. Adding the second bathroom at my parents' house really helped speed up the morning process. I'd bury myself in paperwork all morning and then take lunch to the bonds office or go out with some of my Rangeman buddies. I'd work on more paperwork in the afternoon before heading to my parents' house either for dinner, or to get cleaned up to go out.

Mary Lou and I drove by some of the houses I was interested in. Several were eliminated right off for a variety of reasons. I was left with only a few possibilities, and decided to get in touch with a realtor to see if I could tour the homes.

Unfortunately, I ran out of time. The week was over before I knew it and it was time to return to Jacksonville. I did talk to a realtor and told her what I was looking for. I planned to fly out again in a few weeks so I could look at what she came up with. I was hopeful that my Jacksonville house would sell quickly. Spending the week in Trenton made me realize how much I missed home. I liked Jacksonville a lot, and I met some really great people there, but Trenton was where I belonged.

Tank took me to Newark so I could catch my flight. I'd made a serious dent in the paperwork in his office and he was ecstatic. He told me he'd talked to the core team and they agreed to start looking for an office manager as soon as possible. It made me feel good that I could help out the guys who had done so much for me over the years.

/

Nothing too exciting happened in Jacksonville while I was gone. The realtor showed the house a few times. Steve had moved on to a new project. Doris and Jimmy were doing well, although Jimmy was bored. I pulled Jimmy aside the day after I returned to Jacksonville. I asked him if he'd be interested in relocating for a job.

I told him a little about Rangeman and he asked a lot of questions. We mentioned the idea to Doris, and she was ambivalent about the idea. She'd lived in Jacksonville her whole life and the idea of moving was a little scary to her. She also knew Jimmy would never leave without her and his chances of finding a good job that utilized his skills were slim in the Jacksonville area. I gave Jimmy Rangeman's number, if he decided to pursue the idea. I wasn't trying to force it on him, and it was a decision he and Doris needed to make together, although it would be great if a couple of my Jacksonville friends made the move to Trenton.


	3. Chapter 3

Author Note: Wow! The response to "Time Out" and now "Back in the Game" is amazing! Thanks for your reviews, your follows, and your favorites.

/

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Back in the Game

Ch3

Things started moving quickly once I returned to Jacksonville. The Jacksonville realtor called a few days after I returned and told me we had an offer. It turned out to be from Sara and her husband. Sara was Steve's sister. I was happy that the house might go to someone I knew and liked. The offer was for less than the asking price and it was a little less than I hoped to get for the place, but I decided to accept it. I liked Sara and didn't mind losing out on a few extra thousand bucks if she and her husband were the buyers. I'd still be coming out ahead financially on the house.

I got a call from Tank a couple days after I returned as well. He asked what I knew about a guy named Jimmy who'd called asking about a job. I was thrilled! I told Tank everything I knew about Jimmy, and explained about Doris. Tank told me he'd called some people he knew in the military and was informed that Jimmy had been an Army Ranger and was very good at his job. The military had been sorry to lose him. I hoped it would work out that Jimmy could get hired. I thought he'd be a good fit with Rangeman, and it would be great to be able to see Doris regularly.

I started packing up all my stuff. I came to Jacksonville with only Rex and a few clothes. Everything fit in my Explorer with lots of room to spare. I'm leaving Jacksonville with Rex, a lot of clothes, and a bunch of furniture, art, and knick-knacks. I decided to rent one of those portable storage units so I could load it at my leisure and then have it delivered to Trenton. Steve, Sara, Jimmy, and Doris showed up for an impromptu packing party and soon the house was nearly vacant. I ordered pizza for us all and we chowed down on pizza and beer after we finished. The only thing left that would need to be packed up would be my bed. There were a few pieces, like the couch from hell, that I didn't really want to take with me. Sara was happy to have it left for her to use in her new house. I warned her how uncomfortable it was, but she was thrilled that it was an antique and actually found the horse hair cushions charming. Unh.

While we were feasting on our pizza, I casually asked Jimmy about his talks with Rangeman. He told me they acted interested in hiring him and he was planning a trip to Trenton for an interview. When I asked Doris what she thought, she told me she was resigned to it. It was important to her that her grandson be happy and at least she'd know someone, me, if they ended up moving out there. I told her that Trenton had an active seniors' community, and that my grandma could introduce her around. She perked up a little at that.

/

A few weeks passed and I was flying back to Trenton to look at houses with the realtor. I needed to find a place fairly quickly. Sara and her husband would be moving into my old house soon, and while they offered to let me stay with them as long as I needed, I was ready to move out. This time, Lester picked me up in Newark.

"So, Beautiful, are you all ready to resume life in Trenton?"

"Yep, Lester. I don't plan on necessarily resuming the same life I used to have though."

"Does that mean you're cutting us out of your life?" I could tell Lester was teasing, he had a fake wounded look on his face.

"I could never cut you out. I'm just planning on doing things differently this time around. No more laughing at Stephanie and counting on her for your entertainment and no more betting on Stephanie. My bad car karma might continue, but I'm not going to be rolling around in garbage anymore."

"So no more bounty hunting?"

"I don't know. I kind of miss it sometimes. I know Lula hasn't been doing very well on her own for the past year. Maybe I could help her out some, but we'll see. The nice thing is that now I don't _have_ to do it. My new financial independence will allow me to do pretty much whatever I want. I'm going to need to do something, though. Not working means I get bored pretty easily."

"Well, maybe I could help with that. Do you want to be Rangeman's office manager?"

"I thought you guys were hiring someone?"

"We've been through three people so far and none of them have worked out. We scared the first one off with all our weapons. She was a wuss anyway. I think the second one took the job just so she could proposition all the guys. She spent more time flirting than working. I know I'm a flirt, but I also know when to put it away and do the job. She couldn't figure that out. The third was a dude that turned out to be way too tightly wound."

I was giggling by the time he finished. "Oh, Les. I'm sorry, but that's hilarious! To answer your question, though, I appreciate the offer. I'm going to have to say no. Before, when a steady paycheck was an issue for me, I would have snapped it up even though I have no desire to be an office worker. But now, if I'm going to work, it's going to be something that allows me to be out and about, not stuck in an office setting."

"Are you sure? You did such a good job a few weeks ago, you'd be perfect for the job."

"You guys have helped me out a lot over the years and I was glad to get the chance to help you out. I just know that I wouldn't ultimately be happy with having the job permanently."

"I understand. It was worth a shot."

"I do have an idea, though. Do you know of any guys who are maybe looking to retire or something due to age or an injury? Maybe someone who'd still like to have their hand in the business, but maybe not in the field anymore?"

"Actually, yeah I do. There's an older guy who's knees are going bad who needs to get out of fieldwork and another who was shot in the line of duty who will never be fit for field duty again. One is in Boston and the other is in Miami. Let me make some calls. That could work, Steph. Thanks!"

"Tell you what. How about I help you out temporarily, until you get someone permanently? I'll be busy with the move for the next few weeks, but after that I could help. Or maybe you'll get lucky and get someone right away."

"We may take you up on that. Even if I get one of the guys I'm thinking of, it'll take them a bit to relocate. They both have families and may need to wait until the end of the school year.

/

I took Mary Lou with me on the house hunt. We started at a large penthouse apartment that was super modern and very secure. It looked pretty cool, but sterile. Mare oohed and aahed over the kitchen, but all I could think was that none of my stuff would look right in the space. It also had a hefty price tag. I didn't mind spending money on a place that I loved, but I didn't love this apartment. It was out of the running.

The next place the realtor showed us was a single story brick ranch home on the outskirts of town. It was on a good sized lot in an established neighborhood of mid-century homes. Mare pointed out that the neighborhood looked like it had a lot of families, based on the number of kids toys we saw in the backyards. The house was okay, but would need some updating. I wasn't sold on the family neighborhood vibe and the house didn't get me excited. Actually, if Doris and Jimmy did end up moving to Trenton, it might be a good house for them.

We saw a few other places that left me feeling cold. I'd told the realtor I was not looking for a gut job, but a house with character might be nice. I think she was getting desperate when she pulled up in front of a rowhouse near the river. It was in a neighborhood that had once been very nice, but declined over the years. It looked like it was currently on its way up again. It was much larger than the rowhomes I was used to in the 'Burg. The realtor told me it was built in the 1920's and had three floors plus a full attic and full basement. It was built of a warm golden stone and had some interesting carved stone detail along the roof line. I was a little worried that all the windows were boarded up, but the realtor assured me the glass was intact underneath the plywood.

Mary Lou looked skeptical as the realtor unlocked the front door and led us inside. The minute we walked in, I knew this was my house. Call it my spidey sense or call it craziness, but I could tell this place was going to be mine. There was a beautifully carved staircase in the front hall that had amazingly never been painted. Even though it was a little grimy, the wood almost glowed. When she told me the house had nine bedrooms and one bathroom, I thought of my house in Jacksonville. If anything, the house in Jacksonville had the better original bathroom. This one had been remodeled sometime in the 1970's, using a garish color scheme of gold flocked wallpaper and bright red fixtures. The bedrooms actually had closets in this house, which was nice. The kitchen was missing all the appliances and most of the cabinet doors.

All in all, it needed a lot of work. The place just skirted the edge of gut job, but I could live here while work was being done. The backyard was long and narrow and was bordered on each side by high stone walls. A carriage house at the back of the property bordered on an alley and had room for two cars. The upstairs had been turned into an apartment at some point. The whole property was a pretty big place for one person, but it felt right to me. I told the realtor to write up my offer. I'd be paying cash and the house was unoccupied so hopefully that would speed things along. It turned out to be the cheapest place we'd seen all day, although by the time I finished sinking money into it, it would no longer be cheap.

/

I spent part of each day during my weeklong stay in Trenton helping out in the office at Rangeman. Tank told me that the older guy in Boston expressed interest in the office manager position when it was offered. They asked if they could fly him to Trenton while I was there so he could shadow me for a day to give him an idea of what the job entailed.

He seemed like he could be a good fit for the job. He didn't really have office experience, but he was intelligent and already knew how Rangeman operated. He also had a few ideas about how to make things run more efficiently, which sounded good to me.

Before I left Trenton to go back to Jacksonville one last time, I asked Tank if he'd heard anything about Ranger. I didn't want to be one of those nagging, worrywort girlfriends, but I couldn't help asking anyway. Tank said that so far he hadn't heard anything negative, so we should assume everything was okay.

/

Moving day arrived. Steve, Doris, and Jimmy were all on hand to see me off. Rex's cage was strapped into the front seat of my new Ford Explorer and the back was crammed full of clothes and some of the more fragile, breakable stuff I'd kept of Aunt Elizabeth's. I gave them all hugs and told Doris and Jimmy I hoped to see them both soon in Trenton. I asked Steve if he'd be interested in coming out to fix up my new house, but he laughingly declined.

Looking in the rearview mirror as I took off down the street, I was a little sad to be leaving. Aunt Elizabeth gave me an incredible gift and I enjoyed my time in her house and in this town, but it was time to move on to the next phase of my life.


	4. Chapter 4

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them

Back in the Game

Ch4

I conferred with Rex, and he agreed we should take a different way back East. When we drove out to Jacksonville last year, I'd gone the most direct route with a stopover in Columbus to visit the zoo. This time I drove down to St. Louis and got on I-64 going east. It tacked on an extra three to four hours to the trip, but maybe the scenery would be a little different.

I decided to stop early, in Louisville, Kentucky. I spent the afternoon doing a little tour at Churchill Downs, where the Kentucky Derby is held. The next morning I drove a little further down the road to Lexington to a place called the Kentucky Horse Park. Most of what I knew about horses came from my niece, Mary Alice, but the park was pretty cool. She'd get a huge kick out of it. Maybe we'd have to do a girls' trip down here so she can see all the horse stuff in the area.

Two days later, I was back in Trenton. It was a picturesque trip, through Kentucky, West Virgina, and Virgina, although north of Richmond was mostly familiar to me already. I drove by my new house, curious to see if my portable storage unit showed up early. It wasn't supposed to be here yet, but I checked anyway since I didn't want to leave all my worldly possessions sitting in a storage unit on the street. My street was possession-free so I moseyed my way over to my parents' house. My new house was going to require a small amount of work before I could live in it. Dad was supposed to come help take all the plywood off the windows and I needed to get the utilities turned on. Mom, Grandma, and Val said they would come help me clean.

/

The next morning, I slept in a little and skipped running in favor of doing a little yoga to limber up after sitting in the car for three days. I showered quickly and dressed in old clothes. There wasn't much point in going through my entire beauty regimen when I would just be getting dirty. Mom had pancakes and bacon ready for me when I got downstairs. She and Grandma had their arsenal of cleaning products ready by the door. Dad had his toolbox waiting and was outside strapping his ladder to the roof rack of my Explorer. Val pulled up just as we headed outside. Team Plum was ready for action.

After stopping at the realtor's office to pick up the keys, our little caravan made its way to my new house. This would be my family's first glimpse of the place. Val looked horrified. Mom and Grandma exchanged glances and then looked at me. "What is it with you and old houses, Stephanie? Is the inside going to be in better shape than Elizabeth's house?"

"I never realized until Elizabeth's house that I actually like the charm and character of an older home. And it's better than Elizabeth's house, if only because it's empty. The bathroom is hideous and the kitchen is a disaster. You'll see. Let's go in."

I unlocked the door and gave them the nickel tour. "It needs a lot of work, Pumpkin," Dad muttered.

Val added, "You couldn't find a smaller house?"

Okay, it was time for a pep talk. "Look. It's not that bad. It just needs some scrubbing on the inside for now. The utilities should be turned on now so I have water and electricity. Hot water, a flushing toilet, and a bed is all I really need. Once the plywood comes off the windows, it'll look tons better. You'll see." I finished with a bright smile.

Mom, Val, and Grandma got started in the front hall, with plans to work their way to the kitchen, and then move upstairs. Dad and I went outside to the windows un-boarded. I held the ladder as Dad used a crowbar and claw end of a hammer to rip out nails and pry off the plywood. After we finished a few hours later, we went inside to check out the results.

"Oh wow!" I exclaimed when we walked into the now bright living room. I didn't notice before, but with the plywood gone, the bright sun shone through beautiful stained glass panels at the top of each window.

"Okay," Val conceded. "This is a nice house."

Just then we heard a shriek from the back of the house and then some hysterical giggling. Dad, Val, and I raced towards the laughter. "What's wrong?" I cried.

"This sure is a pip of a bathroom, baby granddaughter!" Grandma said with a snort. Mom was the giggler of the duo.

"This has to be the ugliest bathroom I've ever seen. Metallic gold flocked wallpaper and bright cherry red fixtures? Who knew you could get a toilet and tub in that color?" Mom said in between giggles.

"That can and definitely will be changed," I replied. "The important thing is, does the toilet flush and does the water get hot?" Grandma turned on the hot water tap and then flushed the toilet. She held her finger under the faucet and nodded. Both tests were successful. We spent the rest of the day cleaning the inside of the house and washing the windows. Dad took my Explorer back home to get his lawnmower so he could cut down the foot tall grass in my backyard. My furniture was due to arrive the next day, so I spent another night at my parents' house.

/

After a run, I showered and then primped a little more than yesterday since I was meeting Connie and Lula at Pino's for lunch. I spent the morning at a home improvement store ordering appliances. The kitchen would need to be gutted at some point, but until then I still needed a fridge and microwave. I figured I might as well buy a stove while I was at it. They could be incorporated into the new kitchen when the time came.

Lunch with the girls was entertaining as always. They filled me in on Vinnie's latest perversions, which almost made me lose my appetite. Connie told me that Vinnie wanted me to come back and pick up skips again. Apparently Joyce Barnhardt and Lula weren't doing so hot. I told Lula that I was willing to sometimes ride shotgun with her while she hunted down her FTA's and maybe provide some backup, but that I wasn't sure I wanted to be a full-time bounty hunter anymore.

"You and me, white girl! We'll show 'em how it's done. Maybe we can get Vinnie to put our pictures on the side of a bus again to let everyone know you're back. Those skips won't know what hit 'em. And I'll pop a cap in their ass if they don't come quietly!"

"No! No publicity. I don't want the crazies to know I'm back. And no shooting. If you're gonna be shooting people, then I'm not riding with you."

"You don't know how to have any fun anymore. What happened to you?"

"I think I grew up. Besides, I've never wanted you to shoot anyone. This is nothing new, Lula."

"Hunh," I got in reply before she turned her back on me and started talking to Connie.

Just then, my phone rang. When I answered it, an automated voice told me that my storage unit was being delivered. I grabbed my purse and told Lula and Connie what was up. They decided to tag along so they could see the new place. Connie said that Vinnie would just have to hold down the fort a little longer on his own.

We all drove in separate vehicles since Connie was returning to the office after the house tour, and Lula would be off to hopefully catch some skips. When we pulled up to the house, I noticed a few pots of colorful flowers sitting on the porch. Looked like Mom had stopped by to make the place look lived in. The flowers did look nice, but I wasn't optimistic about my abilities to keep them alive. The delivery truck wasn't there yet, so I let us into the house and gave the tour. Both women wrinkled their noses at the interior. Obviously they had no imagination.

The loud rumbling of a large truck indicated an arrival. I looked out the front door and it was my appliance delivery, which I hadn't been expecting until tomorrow. Good thing I was home to receive the order! Another truck slowly rumbled down the narrow street, parking behind the first truck. This was my storage unit. I didn't like having my stuff out on the street, but there was no way the big truck would fit down the alley behind the house to put the unit in the backyard. Lula and Connie took off once the trucks arrived. The appliance delivery people wasted no time in getting my three pieces into place in the kitchen. I signed the delivery order and they were quickly on their way.

The storage unit delivery guy asked where he should set my unit down. I pointed at the spot directly in front of the house and maneuvered the truck into position. I grabbed my ring of keys and hustled over to the unit. After finding the brand new padlock key, I attempted to open the lock. It didn't work. I looked at the key again, it was the only padlock key on my key ring so it couldn't be the wrong key. The lock looked like the one I put on back in Jacksonville. I knew it'd worked there since I was in and out of the unit several times before it was picked up. Hunh. The delivery guy sped away before I could ask him to make sure he delivered the right unit.

I put in a call to Tank at Rangeman. After explaining my problem, he said he'd send a guy over to either pick the lock or cut it open with bolt cutters. Thirty minutes later, I was sitting on the front porch steps admiring my new flowers when a black Rangeman SUV pulled up and Lester stepped out. "Hi, Steph. I hear you need my expertise?"

"I can't figure out why my key won't work. The only thing I can think is that maybe this isn't my storage unit."

"Give me a second and we'll find out." Lester opened a small case and chose some tools. About twenty seconds later he had the lock opened and off the hasp. My belongings were inside. "This is your stuff isn't it? I recognize that headboard from when I stayed with you in Jacksonville."

"Um, yeah. That's my stuff. But something isn't right here. This is not how I packed the unit. Everything is all jumbled up and rearranged."

"Maybe it jostled around in the move."

"No, we packed everything very tightly and most of the stuff was wrapped in blankets. This stuff has been purposely moved around and whoever did it didn't bother to re-wrap anything."

"Is anything missing?"

"Who knows right now. I'm going to have to go through everything once we get it all out. It's too much of a mess to tell right now. I hope they didn't break anything."

Lester got on the phone and a while later two SUV's pulled up and eight big Merry Men piled out. "Please tell me you all aren't on duty!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, why?" Manny replied.

"You guys have been swamped. You don't have time to be unloading my furniture! I really don't want to be a drain on Rangeman resources anymore, guys. I do appreciate the thought, though."

"Beautiful, it'll take no time at all to unload your stuff with this many guys. We'll just haul it into the house and put it downstairs somewhere, how 'bout that? You can decide later where you want it all to go and recruit someone to help you rearrange everything. I just want to get it unloaded now so we can see if anything is missing or damaged. Something doesn't feel right about this."

Lester's last sentence echoed what I was feeling. My spidey sense told me something was off with this whole thing. I nodded my head in agreement and the guys jumped into action. Thirty minutes later all of my belongings were crammed my living and dining rooms. There were a few small scratches, but nothing seemed to be seriously damaged. Nothing was missing. This was definitely weird. Why would someone go through my stuff but not take or damage anything?

A shout from outside drew me back out to the storage unit. Zero was piling up the old blankets that had originally been wrapped around my furniture. He pointed at the floor in the back. The plywood subfloor looked like it had been pried up and haphazardly nailed back down. "Was the floor like this when you filled the unit?"

I shook my head. "No. The floor was totally smooth. What's under the plywood?"

Manny handed Zero a crowbar and he easily pried the sheet of plywood up. "This is not good, Steph." Lester and Manny crowded around Zero to look at what he was talking about.

"Shit," Lester spat out.

"What is it?" I asked. I couldn't see around the three big guys blocking my view.

Zero snapped on a latex glove and bent to pick something up. When he turned around to show it to me, it took me a second to realize what I was looking at. My legs gave out and I sat down hard on the floor of the storage unit. Little black dots danced across my vision and I heard a roaring in my ears. Knowing from past experience that I was about to pass out, I put my head between my knees and started focusing on my breathing. All I could think was, "Why me?"


	5. Chapter 5

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Back in the Game

Ch5

"Beautiful! Steph! Stephanie!" I gradually became aware that Lester was trying to get my attention. I blinked my eyes and looked at him. He was crouched down in front of me.

"Did I pass out?"

"No, you were in some weird kind of zone. Are you gonna be okay or do I need to call Bobby?" Bobby was the Rangeman medic and my usual choice over a potential hospital visit.

"I'm okay now. Why was there a still-bloody hand in the floor of my storage unit?"

"That's a good question. While you were zoned out in La-La Land, we found something else." He showed me a blood covered, plastic wrapped rectangular package.

"Am I supposed to know what that is? Is it another body part?"

"Drugs. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a kilo of cocaine. There are two more where that one came from. Judging by the way the way they were packed into the space, I think there were probably a lot more of these bundles at one time."

"So this was a drug deal gone bad? But how long have the drugs been in that floor? Nothing looked out-of-place when I packed the unit in Jacksonville. Nothing sounded or felt odd when we were walking around on that floor while we were loading my stuff. Plus, that blood is relatively fresh, not a week or more old like it'd be if the hand was in there before I started packing the unit." Sad to say, but I've become something of an expert on the freshness of detached body parts over the years.

"I don't know. Zero took a sample of the blood and 'accidentally' broke open one of the packages to get a sample of the drugs. Manny took a bunch of pictures. At this point, I think you should call the police."

"Great, I barely arrived back in Trenton and already TPD is going to be yucking it up at my expense." I took a deep breath and dialed Morelli. Probably I should have dialed 911, but I'd rather talk to Morelli about this.

"Hiya Cupcake!" Wow, Morelli sounded cheerful. "Do you need help getting your stuff moved in? I can probably swing by after work tonight. Maybe I can get Joanne to come so you can meet her. I think you'll like her."

"Um, actually no. I called about something else."

I guess he could tell by the tone of my voice that bad news was coming his way, because his voice lost all cheer in his next statement. "Shit, Stephanie. What are you into now?"

I explained the situation. There was heavy silence on the other end of the phone before he sighed. "I'll be there in a bit. Try not to touch anything more than you already have." He hung up without saying goodbye.

I told the guys what Morelli said. Lester made the decision to let everyone but Manny and Zero go back to their regularly scheduled Rangeman duties. I went over to my Explorer and dug four icy cold bottles of water out of the cooler I'd stocked full this morning before meeting Lula and Connie for lunch. After passing out the waters, we all silently parked our butts on the front porch to wait for Morelli.

It didn't take Morelli long to get to the house. He angled out of his POS unmarked cop car and ambled over to where we were sitting. "So, what's going on?"

I explained again how I couldn't get my key to open the padlock and called Rangeman for assistance. I told him that when Lester opened the door to the unit, I could immediately tell that someone had been inside after I closed it up for the last time in Jacksonville. I described how Steve, Jimmy, Doris, and I had carefully wrapped the furniture in blankets and packed everything tightly together so nothing would shift. When Lester opened the door, the blankets were disturbed and the furniture was moved into a different layout. I turned to Lester to let him continue the story.

Lester went on to tell the rest of it, with Zero and Manny adding their little parts. I noticed that they neglected to mention that they collected a few samples of their own for Rangeman testing purposes. We all trooped over to the storage unit and Morelli went inside. When he came back out, his face was grim.

"This is bad. Let me make some calls. This really isn't my department, but I wanted to look at the scene before I called anyone else in." He went back to his car to make his calls in private. The guys and I went back to the front porch. Several minutes later, Joe returned to the porch. "Okay, people are on their way. Santos, you and your guys can go. I heard you guys have been really busy lately. We know where to find you. You are going to have to give statements soon, but someone will call you to set something up." Les gave me a hug and told me to keep him posted. All three guys took off in the remaining Rangeman SUV.

Morelli plunked down on the porch in the spot vacated by Les. "I don't know how you do it. Before you say it, I know this isn't your fault. I hate to admit it, but I'm glad we're not together anymore. I love you, but the stress was killing my stomach lining. Now, I'm worried about you but it feels different from before."

"I'm glad, I guess. I love you too, Joe, but I'm glad we're not together anymore as well. You haven't yelled at me once yet today. That's a nice change."

Changing the subject, Joe asked, "So you bought a house, huh? Can I have a look around?"

"Knock yourself out. Here, I'll come with you and give you the tour." I led him through the house. We ended up back on the first floor in the living room where a lot of my stuff was residing.

"It's kind of a big house for one person, isn't it? Do you have plans I don't know about?"

"It felt like home when I walked in. I don't know how else to explain it. I know it needs work, but I can afford it now. It is a lot of house for just me, but that's okay."

"CSU is probably going to want to dust for prints on this stuff. Who all touched this stuff before it left Jacksonville and after it got here?" I pulled a notebook out of my purse and made a list of the people in Jacksonville who potentially touched the furniture and a separate list of the Merry Men who were present today for the unloading.

I offered Joe a drink from my cooler. He took a Coke and then we sat back down on the steps. This day was not going like it was supposed to. At the rate things were going, I'd be spending another night at my parents' house instead of in my own home. My phone rang. I looked down and saw that it was my mother. That was quick. When I answered, she jumped right in with, "Lila Hobbs' daughter doesn't find body parts in her storage unit!"

"Mom!"

"I know," she sighed. "Old habits are hard to break. Are you okay?"

"I'm tired and pissed off, but yeah. I'm okay. I'll probably be staying another night at your house. And before you ask, no I don't know if I'll make it back in time for dinner so don't wait on me."

"Alright, Stephanie. Be careful." Amazingly, that conversation went a lot better than I thought it would. Our new mother-daughter relationship may have survived its first obstacle.

Not long after that, a stream of official looking vehicles wound its way onto my new street. I was sure my new neighbors were loving me already. A dozen people were soon milling about doing official police things. Morelli went off to greet them. I disappeared into the house. Morelli knew where to find me if he needed something.

I headed back to the kitchen and took stock. The delivery guys should have hooked everything up, but they didn't. I guess they thought it was a demo zone, so it wasn't necessary. Little did they know I planned on living with it like this for a while. I called Dad and he agreed to come over to help me maneuver the appliances into place and then hook them up. My Explorer was surrounded by vehicles, so I was stuck for a while. I made several trips back and forth, carrying in everything I'd packed into the cargo area. Art, fragile items, clothes, and my cooler. I lugged my clothes upstairs to the bedroom I'd chosen to use.

Dad knocked on the back door, scaring the crap out of me. I wasn't expecting anyone to be back there. All the activity was in the front of the house. Dad was smart and used the alley and parked his cab in my garage. He wasn't trapped here like I was. Maybe I could get him to give me a ride after we were done. I could lend Morelli a key and tell him to lock up. Dad and I made short work of the appliance hookup. He asked about a washer and dryer. I hadn't even thought to buy those. I guess I'd be making another shopping trip soon. Until then, I knew Mom would do my laundry, as she'd done for most of my life.

After a few hours, I still hadn't had anyone come over to ask me questions. I tracked down Morelli and asked him if I could go. He conferred with someone else and it was agreed that I could go, if I promised to go to TPD in the morning so someone could take my official statement. I quickly made my promise, gave Morelli a copy of my key, and took off. Dad was hanging around waiting for me. I grabbed him and made a beeline for the back door. I didn't want anyone to change their minds about letting me leave.

As Dad parked the cab in the driveway of my parents' house, I looked at my phone. 5:48, just in time for dinner. I answered what seemed like a zillion questions asked by Mom and Grandma. I knew Grandma wanted a good story to tell at the beauty shop, but I couldn't bring myself to say too much. I really wasn't looking forward to being the talk of Trenton again. Mom brought out chocolate mousse for dessert, which made me feel a lot better. Maybe tomorrow things would look up, even though I was supposed to ride along with Lula.


	6. Chapter 6

Author Note: Thanks for all the lovely reviews! It is also very nice to see how many people have favorited the story and/or are following it.

/

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Back in the Game

Ch6

Morelli stopped by my parents' house on his way to work the next morning. He left me my house key and told me I was free to touch my furniture again, which meant I could finish moving in. The storage unit had been hauled away as evidence. I decided to do yoga instead of running. After getting cleaned up, I enjoyed a tasty ham and cheese omelette courtesy of Mom. Lula was getting her hair done this morning, so I had a few hours to kill before meeting up with her to look for her FTA's.

I talked to Mom and Dad to get their opinions on local contractors who might be a good fit to work on my house. I wanted someone who would work quickly and honestly, and not charge me a fortune. I may be a millionaire, thanks to my great-aunt Elizabeth, but that didn't mean I was willing to squander my money. I got a few names of people they knew and went up to my old room to make a few calls. Three calls later, I scheduled a meeting with Jeff Wolesky, a guy I remembered from high school as being kind of a scrawny geek. He seemed eager for my business on the phone, unlike the first two people I called. And unlike the first two people I called, he didn't once mention my reputation as the 'Bombshell Bounty Hunter'.

/

Lula was running late so I sat on the fake leather couch in the bonds office and visited with Connie. Vinnie stuck his head out of his office door after I got there and demanded to know when I was going to start working for him again since Joyce and Lula were causing him to lose lots of money.

"I'm willing to occasionally help Lula, but I'm not coming back to work for you, Vinnie. Ya know, you could always go pick up some of those skips yourself." Vinnie turned purple with rage at the thought of chasing FTA's himself and retreated to his office, slamming the door behind him. Connie and I looked at each other and burst into laughter.

"He's not exaggerating, Steph. He really is losing money with Joyce and Lula on the job. We haven't been able to find anyone to take their place. Vinnie's pissed because he knows he probably is going to have start bringing in FTA's again with the way things are going."

I felt momentary guilt, but quickly suppressed it. Vinnie may have given me a job when I needed it, but I had to blackmail him into it with the threat of telling his wife about his perversions with a duck. I told Connie, "I'm not willing to roll in garbage anymore. I don't want to be the laughingstock of Trenton again, even if I did have a one hundred percent capture rate. I'll help Lula, but we're taking her car, and if anyone's going to be covered in mystery substances it's going to be her."

At that moment, Lula burst through the door. Her hair was in glossy pink and black ringlets. She was wearing a black bustier that looked like it was in danger of splitting down the seams. Her black spandex leggings were about five sizes too small and were tucked into high-heeled combat boots decorated with rhinestones. It looked like Lula's version of the Rangeman uniform. "Hey girl, you ready for action?"

I nodded and looked down at my own outfit. I was wearing a stretchy blue t-shirt, blue jeans, and my old CAT boots. I was underdressed, compared to Lula. I had a pair of cuffs and a canister of peppery spray in my purse. This was as ready as I was gonna get.

Lula fished her gun out of her pink rhinestone crusted purse and waved it around. "Let's go girl. We've got us some skips that ain't gonna know what hit 'em." Jeez, this sounded just like old times.

"No shooting, Lula. Remember?" I said through gritted teeth. Why did I agree to help her, again? "Let's go. We're taking your car."

"That's good. You probably got a crappy sound system and I need me some Dolby to get in the mood to apprehend some fugitives." I rolled my eyes at Connie and she gave me a grin and a finger wave as Lula and I walked out of the office.

I slid into the passenger seat and Lula handed me the stack of file folders for her outstanding skips. After flipping through them, I figured we could probably bring in three of them in this afternoon with little difficulty. "Let's go get Sally Sweet first, before he has to do the afternoon school bus run."

I directed Lula to Sally's latest address, a rundown row house. Lula knocked on the door. When Sally answered, he saw Lula and started swearing at her. Lula got in his face and started swearing back. This wasn't good. It looked like Lula had gone straight into rhino mode. They used to be friends, so this was a little weird. I shoved Lula aside and stuck my boot in the door so Sally couldn't slam it. He blinked when he saw me. "Stephanie?"

"Hi Sally. What's up with you and Lula?"

"She and I had a fight about my band. She wanted in, and we didn't let her 'cuz she's a shitty singer. I mean, I know I go for the shock factor and all, but at least I'm got some musical skills. She's just plain terrible. She drags us down." Sally definitely had the shock factor down. He was very tall and very hairy and was currently dressed in a red bustier, denim short shorts, and red patent leather FMP's. He also wasn't wrong about Lula's lack of singing ability.

"Okay, here's the deal. You missed your court date. Can you come reschedule now so we can get you back before you do your afternoon school bus gig?"

"For you, yeah. I'm not talking to that bitch Lula though. She's the reason I got arrested in the first place."

This sounded like a story I probably didn't want to hear, but I couldn't help myself. Lula was ignoring Sally as we all piled into her red Firebird. "So," I started. "How did you get arrested?"

"Miss Thang here ripped my thong off during a gig at this new club downtown. She was pissed about not getting in the band. I got arrested for the whole public nudity thing." Eeeeuw, now I had a bad image of a naked, overly hair Sally Sweet in my head. I knew I'd regret asking about it. We made the rest of the trip to TPD in tense silence. I told Lula she was going to have to walk Sally in herself, since he was technically her skip. The two shot daggers at each other as they walked into the building. I called Connie after they got out of the car. She promised to come right over to get him rebonded. Lula came out a few minutes later clutching her body receipt.

Lula and I spent the rest of the afternoon bringing in a small time thief that had been a regular skip of mine. He came easily when he saw it was me. We also got Dougie Kruper, who had resurrected his role as the Dealer. The day was productive for Lula, she ended up with fifteen hundred bucks in her pocket. She didn't offer to share any of it with me, like I used to do with her, but that was okay. I didn't really need the money. Truthfully, I wasn't sure I wanted to help Lula anymore. Either I had changed more drastically than I thought, or Lula had. She was really grating on my nerves by the end of the afternoon. Her attitude sucked, and I could see why she was struggling. She couldn't even handle what used to be my super easy regulars. She seemed to have pissed them all off to the point that they wouldn't go with her willingly. Had she always been like that, and I never noticed?

/

After visiting with Connie and Lula a little more, I made my escape. The only good thing about the day was that I was still clean. I was hoping that my meeting with Jeff Wolesky would put me in a better mood. I let myself into my new house and wandered through the living room and dining room. All of my furniture was covered in fingerprint powder, so more cleaning was in my immediate future. I went back to the kitchen to collect some of the supplies that Mom and Val left behind. I was about halfway through the task of wiping down my furniture, when I heard a knock at the front door. I dropped the cleaning cloth and rubbed my hands on the sides of my jeans. I opened the front door to see a hunky looking guy. He was about my age, about my height, with brown hair and eyes, and he looked to be in pretty good shape. "Can I help you?" I asked.

"Jeff Wolesky," the guy said with a smile as he stuck out his hand. I shook his hand and then shook my head at his appearance. "Yeah, I know. I've changed a lot since high school. So, show me the house and tell me what you want done."

We spent the next hour rambling around the house. I helped take measurements and he jotted them down in his notebook. He also wrote down my ideas for what I wanted the house to look like. He got a good laugh when he saw the bathroom and cringed when he saw the state of the kitchen. Jeff agreed to my stipulation that I must be able to live in the house while he worked. He also agreed to do his best to salvage as much original detail as possible. Apparently he was not daunted by the thought of turning my nine bed, one bath house into a five bedroom, four and a half bathroom home.

Before he left, I took him out to the garage and garage apartment. This building was actually in pretty good condition, and he suggested a few cosmetic changes to make the apartment into a space I could use for an office. Jeff excused himself back to his truck so he could work out a rough estimate. He came back inside half an hour later with a number I could live with and a promise to start in a few days.

Not long after Jeff left, Morelli showed up. I was just wrapping up the furniture cleaning when he arrived. I let him in and pulled a couple of chairs out of the mess so we could sit down. "So what brings you by, Joe?"

"I have a few questions about yesterday. Do you have time to answer them?"

"I'll answer your questions if you promise to help me move all the pieces for my bed upstairs and help me set it up. I want to sleep in my house tonight."

"I'd have helped you anyways, you know that." Morelli asked a few questions that basically had me rehashing the entire story from the day before. I don't think he learned anything new from me. I asked him if he'd learned anything new about what happened. "We know your storage unit had a little layover in Newark at one of the company's distribution centers before it got loaded on a different truck and shipped here. The whole thing probably happened there. The DEA is involved now, and they're trying to get a warrant to search the place. Apparently no employees are missing a hand, so I don't know how much the search warrant will help. Watch your back, Cupcake. I know this wasn't your fault, but you're still a shit magnet even after being gone for a year."

I rolled my eyes and got Joe to help me cart up the pieces to my bed. It didn't take long to get everything put together and then we dragged up the mattress and box springs. Joe took off after that, saying he had a date with Joanne after she finished her shift at the hospital. I returned to my parents' house for dinner and to collect the few things I'd carted in after I came back to Trenton. Dad helped me load my suitcases back in the Explorer. Mom gave me a bag of leftovers and I was on my way home. I was definitely happy to spend my first night in my new house.


	7. Chapter 7

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Back in the Game

Ch7

I woke the next morning feeling very well rested. It may be a new house, but I was sleeping in my own bed on my own sheets. I made my way downstairs to use the ugly bathroom. After dressing in running clothes, I jogged a few blocks down to Stacy Park and started my run along the river. My face was beet red and I was sweating profusely by the time I got home. Tank was sitting on my steps when I got there. He did a double take when he saw me. "You okay Little Girl? Are you running from someone?"

"Ha, ha, Tank." I started stretching so I wouldn't cramp up later. "What are you doing here, Big Guy?"

"I came to see your new house, since it seems like half of Rangeman has already been here. Want to tell me about this bloody hand mess?" I unlocked the door and let him in. I knew he could have picked the lock, but I guess he was being polite and waiting for me to get home. I headed for the kitchen and pulled two waters out of the fridge. I tossed one to Tank and downed my own quickly. I told Tank everything I knew about the drugs and hand, which wasn't much.

After a quick tour of the house, Tank asked about security. I told him I wanted Rangeman security, but I didn't want to go overboard. He said he'd get someone right over, but I managed to get him to make me an appointment, just like a regular customer. As he walked back out to his black Rangeman SUV, Tank asked if I could come help out in the Rangeman office sometime in the next day or two. They were backed up on searches and there was some paperwork that needed to be filed. The new office manager would be starting in a few weeks, but this was stuff that needed done before he got there. I agreed and told him I'd be there, probably that afternoon.

/

I showered and put forth a little more effort in my beauty routine than I'd got used to in Jacksonville. Being back in Jersey made me feel like I should be showing my Jersey Girl roots or something. I ate a Pop Tart for breakfast with my coffee. I dropped a corner of the Pop Tart in Rex's food dish and poured in some hamster crunchies. Jeff showed up with his crew a day or two earlier than I expected and started on the necessary demo on the second and third floors, taking care to leave my bedroom alone for the time being and to not damage the floors or wood trim. While his crew was banging around upstairs, Jeff and I sat down with his iPad so I could pick out fixtures for the kitchen and bathroom. Jeff didn't want to start tearing anything down in those rooms until the new stuff was in, so I wouldn't be too inconvenienced.

Dad stopped by after his morning cab fares to help me move more furniture around. We got the beautiful antique dining room table and chairs in place and then moved in the matching buffet. They were large pieces, but the room was big enough to not be overwhelmed. I had several silk and wool antique rugs, but decided to not put them down until the work was done. They were hard to clean and with the demo going on, dust was flying. Dad helped arrange the living room so it resembled a living room instead of a furniture warehouse. I still had bed frames and end tables and other things for the bedrooms all occupying the living room, but it was much tidier now. I realized, with the room less messy, that I no longer had a couch. I'd left it in the Jacksonville house. That would have to be a purchase in the near future. Dad and I went to Pino's for lunch, where I treated him to a meatball sub as thanks for his help.

After lunch, I decided to go to Rangeman and get some work done. Tank asked me to start on the overflowing pile of searches in my old cubicle. I plopped down in my chair and booted up the computer. Judging by the size of the pile, I was going to be here awhile. Most of them seemed to be routine background checks, which usually didn't take too long to complete. Before I knew it, Bobby was standing behind me.

"Bomber, are you gonna take a break anytime soon? You've been at it for six straight hours!"

I looked at the time on the computer and was shocked to see it was close to seven o'clock. I looked at my inbox and saw that I'd completed probably ninety percent of the search requests. "Thanks for the heads up, Bobby. I think I'll call it a night. I'll be back sometime tomorrow to finish up."

Bobby ruffled my hair and went back to whatever he'd been doing before he stopped at my cubicle. I shut down the computer and grabbed my purse and pile of completed searches. After distributing the searches to the cubicles of the Rangemen who'd requested them, I took the stairs down to the garage and hopped in my Explorer to go home.

The next few days followed a similar pattern. I'd wake up and work out fairly early so I could get cleaned up before Jeff and his guys showed up for work. Jeff and I would meet in the kitchen over coffee and go over any problems from the previous day and the plan for the current day. Jeff seemed like a good guy, and reminded me of Steve back in Jacksonville. Jeff wasn't focusing his business on historic preservation, unlike Steve, but he knew what needed to be done in my house to maintain its character.

After the morning meeting, Jeff would start working on the house, and I would vacate the house to escape the noise. Usually I ended up at Rangeman, doing paperwork. It only took me a few days before I had all the paperwork under control again, but I admit to dragging it out a little to have something to do.

/

I stopped by the bonds office to hang out with Connie a bit. Lula was there too, complaining about how none of her skips ever wanted to cooperate. I debated on whether or not to say anything and risk offending her. After her rant wound down, I piped up and asked her if she wanted to go couch shopping with me. At the mention of shopping, Lula perked right up. We took my Explorer and drove to the Ashley furniture store. I wasn't looking to spend a ton of money on a couch, but I wasn't going for my old thrift-store-chic look again either.

Lula was silent on the way to the store. I parked the car and hit the locks before she could climb out. "Okay Lula, what's going on?"

She narrowed her eyes at me and stuck her lower lip out. "What's wrong with me? I don't know what you're talking about. You're the one who came back all rich and shit."

"I'd like to think that the money itself hasn't changed me that much. The money enabled me to figure some stuff out in my life and make changes. It broke me out of the rut my life was in, the rut I wasn't happy with but didn't know how to change. I'd like to hope that I'm still myself, just maybe a little improved. So, that's what's going on with me. Now I'll repeat my question. What's going on, Lula?"

"None of the skips cooperate, even the ones that used to go just fine for you. I never got three skips in one day before, until you were with me the other day."

"Lula, I'm going to tell you something that will probably piss you off, but I'm telling you this because you're my friend and I want you to succeed." I looked at her and she nodded, so I decided to continue. "Your attitude sucks, plain and simple. You were in rhino mode almost the entire time I was with you the other day. To be honest, even I didn't want to be around you and you weren't hauling me off to jail."

"But they don't ever do what I tell them, if I can even find 'em!" she protested.

"I had almost no training when I started as a BEA. I didn't have a hell of a lot more by the time I quit. My success was due to two things. First, I have good instincts about where to find people, my spidey-sense. I realize that not everyone has that, so that was a plus for me. Second, is that I tried to be nice to the skips before I went into rhino mode. Charming them helps more than you'd think. Have you heard the whole 'you catch more flies with honey' thing?"

"Stephanie, I'm a lot of things, but charming isn't one of them." Lula was looking dangerously close to tears.

"I'm not trying to drag you down. You're my friend and I want to help, Lula. But the attitude thing really needs to change. You used to be so positive! Think about what you've accomplished since I first met you. If you show up at a skip's door in a bad mood and expecting the worst, that's what you'll get."

"I know, but it's hard to change. It's a habit now."

"You can change, you changed your whole life after I met you. I'll help you, but first let's go couch shopping. We're getting a little too emotional here for my comfort level." Lula gave me a wobbly smile and I unlocked the doors so we could get a little retail therapy in.

/

It took us two hours to make a decision, but by the time I made my purchase, I was the proud owner of a brand new couch and Lula seemed to have bounced back and was back to being her brash self again. The store promised to deliver my couch the next day, and Lula and I headed out of the store and back to the Explorer. My Explorer was not as we'd left it. The windshield was smashed and there was a piece of paper flapping beneath the windshield wiper blade.

I knew it was stupid to get close to the car, with my history of vehicle explosions, but I really wanted to read the note. It was written in black Sharpie on a plain piece of white paper. _'We know you didn't give the cops everything. What is left is ours, or you will pay.'_ This was not my first threatening note, by any means. It drove me nuts. I hate that vague shit. And how am I supposed to let _them_ know if I find whatever it is _they_ want?

I sighed and called Morelli. Lula and I went back to the furniture store and sat on the bench outside waiting for the circus to begin. I called Lester and told him what happened and also to ask for a ride, since I knew my car would be hauled away for evidence. I had the bright idea, before the cops got there, to go back over to the Explorer and take a few pictures with my iPhone. I made sure the entire text of the nasty-gram was visible in the photo and then made my way back to the bench.

Morelli got there first. He looked at the Explorer, looked at me, and shook his head with a smirk. Les pulled up a few minutes later. He and Morelli had a brief confab by my car before making their way over to where I was sitting with Lula. Morelli offered, "I called in the troops, they'll be here soon. Am I correct in assuming this has to do with your storage unit? You haven't attracted any other crazies in the past few days, have you?"

"No! I mean yes, I think this has to do with the drugs and bloody hand. And no, I don't have any other crazies after me right now"

Les pulled me to my feet and wrapped me in a hug. It wasn't as good as a Ranger hug, but it still made me feel better. "Okay, Beautiful, here's the plan. You're going to give your statement to Morelli. We'll take Lula back to her car and then I will take you home and check things over there. Does that work for you?" I nodded and told Morelli everything I'd done for the entire day.

Lula got dropped off at the bonds office so she could get her Firebird. Les stopped at a Chinese place and picked up a bag of food I hadn't realized he'd ordered. When we got to my house, he made me wait in the front hall while he cleared the house. After determining it was safe, I grabbed some plates and set up our food in the dining room. We chowed down on sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, and egg rolls. Lester told me my appointment to get an alarm system just got bumped up to a priority job. The guys would be over first thing in the morning to get it set up.

"Steph," Les started before hesitating.

I knew I probably wasn't going to like what came next. "Yeah, Les?"

"You don't have a security system in place yet. Will you please either come to Rangeman for the night or allow me to stay here to keep an eye on things? Please?"

I didn't like to see Merry Men worry about me. "I'd rather stay here, but if you insist, I can go to Rangeman."

"We can stay here, I don't mind Steph. I'm just glad you're not fighting me on this."

"You said the magic word." At his questioning glance, I continued, "You said 'please'."

Since I only had my bed set up upstairs in my room, Lester and I went to work getting another bed put together in the living room. I offered him a bedroom, but he preferred the living room because of its central location to the front door, back door, and stairway. Nothing happened over the night, and I woke the next morning to a note on my nightstand next to a white bakery bag. I opened the bag to find a Boston Creme, which I promptly stuffed in my mouth as I read the note. _'Beautiful, All is quiet. Went back to the office. Guys will be here at 8 a.m. to install security. Thanks for cooperating. ~Les'_


	8. Chapter 8

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them

Back in the Game

Ch8

True to Lester's note, a crew of Rangeman guys showed up promptly at eight. I managed to be showered and dressed before they arrived. I had just poured myself a cup of coffee when the doorbell rang. Hector and his crew came inside and silently started going through the house, making a plan for where all the sensors would go. Jeff and his crew showed up shortly thereafter. I escaped the commotion by taking my coffee and bowl of Frosted Flakes out to the back yard and sat on the back steps to do some thinking.

The broken windshield and threatening note were concerning. Fortunately the windshield could be replaced and the Explorer wasn't totaled like so many of my previous vehicles. I pulled out my phone so I could look at the picture I took of the note. Going by the phrasing of the note, this was more than a one man operation. So some organization, maybe a drug cartel, was involved in the storage unit fiasco. The fact that they thought some of the drugs were missing was not good. I knew there weren't any more of the packages of drugs stashed in my possessions. I'd done a pretty thorough cleaning after the police got done processing my stuff. If the cops hadn't found anything, and I hadn't found anything, there was nothing there. I was sure the cops tore up the storage unit in search of more evidence. That led me to believe that someone double-crossed the main organization and stole some of the drugs.

I had no reason to doubt that the drug people would really make me 'pay' if I didn't return their drugs. The payment would probably be very painful for me. I was going to have to do some independent investigation if I wanted this to be resolved without me getting dead or locked in a safe house somewhere for the rest of my life. To do any investigating, I needed wheels. I called Joe and asked if I could get my car back yet. He gave me a number to call for the investigating officer at the DEA. I called the DEA guy and he released my vehicle and told me its location. After a quick search using the internet browser on my phone, I called a windshield replacement shop and gave them the address of my Explorer. They told me they'd have it replaced in about three hours.

Hector opened the back door and sat on the steps next to me. "Hola Hector. Que pasa?"

"Hola Estefania. Necesitamos discutir los detalles de tu sistema nuevo. Manny va a hablar contigo en ingles, ok?"

I was glad I'd taken Spanish classes, but I was far from fluent. It was good that Manny was going to explain my new security system to me in English. Maybe I should practice with Hector more to try to improve my skills.

Manny went over the details, showing me where all the pieces were located. There were cameras at each exterior door. I had panic buttons at each exit and in my bedroom. There were glass break sensors on each window. The guys also changed my locks, to a top of the line model that was much more difficult to pick. I had new deadbolts, floorbolts, and security chains. They'd even wired the garage and garage apartment into the system. It may seem like overkill, but really none of that has stopped people in the past from getting into my old apartment. I could only hope that it was effective on my new house.

/

I got the Rangeman guys to give me a ride to my car after they finished my security installation. After picking up my Explorer with its brand new windshield, I drove to the bonds office. I wanted to check in with Lula to make sure she wasn't too miffed at me from yesterday's conversation. Connie and Lula were hard at work polishing off a box of donuts. Lula had a stack of folders sitting next to her on the couch. I picked up the folders so I could sit down and absently flipped through them. Lula noticed what I was doing and called me on it.

"You gonna help me again today?"

That hadn't been my plan, but I could adapt. "Sure, why not. Are you ready to go?" In response, Lula grabbed her purse and walked to the door. I waved to Connie and followed Lula out to her car, still holding the FTA folders. I slid into the passenger seat of the Firebird. "So who do you want to go after first?"

"I dunno. What do you think?" What I thought was that I needed to clear the air with Lula.

"Lula, are we okay? I didn't say that stuff yesterday to put you down, you know. You're my friend and I'm worried about you."

"We're okay. I just don't know how to fix my problems. I guess I'm kinda like what you said you were. You know, stuck in a rut or somethin'. But I'm not lucky like you. I didn't have a rich old aunt leave me all her money like you did."

Lula's right. I was lucky that Elizabeth left me her estate. If she hadn't, I'd probably still be living in my old apartment, living hand to mouth. I didn't really know how to help Lula, without giving her money which I knew she'd refuse. "I don't have a magic solution for you, but I do want to help. What do you think would help you do your job better? Or do you even want to keep bounty hunting? Is there something else you want to do?"

"I don't know what I want to do. I don't have a plan. I'm still happy I'm not just a 'ho anymore." It was sometimes easy to forget that Lula had a difficult past.

"How about your classes at the community college? Are you still taking them?"

"No, even with financial aid it was hard to afford and I don't have much time to study. I didn't really like what I was taking anyway."

Hunh, so much for that idea. "Well, how about this. Remember the times we used to try to get in shape? I've done quite a bit of running and yoga for the past year. Do you want to join me?"

"I don't do too good with diets, you know that."

"I'm not suggesting a diet. I don't diet, myself. I'm talking about getting more physical exercise. I've found that I really like yoga. I'm still not a huge fan of running, but I like that I can go up and down the stairs without getting out of breath now."

"I can't afford to go to a gym and I don't want to work out in front of a bunch of people anyway."

"I don't have a gym membership. I do yoga at home and run in Stacy Park. It's up to you, Lula. You're welcome to join me, and I'd like it if you did. It's always more fun to work out with a partner. It could be like the first step to getting your life on track. Plus, it'll be easier to chase down your skips."

"Hunh. Yeah, I could maybe do that. No dieting, right?" I shook my head in response. "Okay then, when do we start? I gotta make sure I have the right outfit." We agreed that she would come to my house in the morning to do some yoga. After our little heart to heart, we got down to business and managed to bring in two skips that netted her a total of a sorry hundred bucks.

/

This wasn't how I'd planned to spend my day, but it turned out okay. I liked the idea of being able to help Lula in some way. After Lula dropped me off at the bonds office, I got in my Explorer and drove to Rangeman on Haywood. I used my key fob to get into the garage and then decided to take the stairs up, since I hadn't worked out that morning.

I said hello to the guys working the monitors and made my way to Tank's office. I got a grunt when I knocked on the door, which I took to mean it was okay to go in. Tank looked up from the pile of paper on his desk. "What's up?"

"Hi Big Guy. I need a little help." He nodded at me, so I continued. "I want to find whoever stole the drugs from the cartel in the hopes of getting them off my back and focused on the thief. Do you think you could track down a copy of the official report?"

"You don't want to tangle with drug guys, Steph. They're bad news."

"I know that. I have no desire to get dead. I also don't want to end up locked away in a safe house forever. I just don't want them to blame me for something that I wasn't involved in. Can you help?"

"I'll see what I can do. Talk to me or one of the core team before you go off doing something crazy, okay?"

Part of me was offended that he thought I would do something crazy, but I had to admit that I did have a history of less than stellar decisions. "I promise to try to keep crazy decisions to a minimum. I'll keep in close contact with Rangeman." Tank said he'd give me a call if or when he got something for me. I didn't stay to chat, because I could tell he had a lot of paperwork to wade through.

After leaving Haywood, I saw that I had just enough time to get to my parents' house for dinner. Takeout didn't appeal to me and a home-cooked meal not made by me sounded good. Dinner was pretty tame by Plum standards and I left with the typical bag of leftovers after a pleasant meal and conversation. Mom didn't nag me about a single thing, and Grandma chattered about a seniors' trip to Atlantic City. I headed home, pleased with how my day had gone. I had a new security system, I found a way to hopefully help Lula, and I took steps to start my investigation into the drug situation.


	9. Chapter 9

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Back in the Game

Ch9

Since I'd learned yoga in a class at the YMCA, I mostly did it from memory now. I didn't have much faith in my abilities as a teacher, so I stopped at the store on the way home from my parents' house last night to buy a beginning yoga DVD for Lula to follow along with. Lula was amazingly on time, and I was barely dressed and ready. I had just finished my first cup of coffee and I set my cup on the counter as I made my way through the house to answer the door. She barged right in, dressed in electric blue yoga pants several sizes too small and a matching too small tank top. I gave her a tour of the house, which I knew wasn't looking its best with all the construction dust.

We ended up in the attic, which had so far escaped demolition and had enough room for both of us to work. We made it through the DVD, barely. I thought it was easy, but I'd also been practicing for a year. Lula really struggled. "This is harder than I thought," she wheezed on the floor after we finished.

"It'll get better," I promised. We clomped down several flights of stairs to the first floor. I offered her a bowl of Frosted Flakes and coffee and she took me up on it.

As we munched on our cereal, I told her about my plans to investigate the missing drugs. "As soon as I get a copy of the report, maybe I'll know where to start looking," I finished.

"I still know a lot of people in that lifestyle and down on Stark Street. Do you want me to ask around?" Lula asked.

I thought for a minute. Lula definitely had more contacts in that part of town than I did, but I didn't want to put her at risk. I told her my concerns and she replied, "I can ask real quiet-like. It's no big deal."

"I'd appreciate the help, but Lula, I'm really trying to go about this the smart way. No more going off half-cocked like I used to. I really don't want you to get hurt, so please be careful with who and how you ask, okay? These guys mean business. They cut off some dude's hand and we don't know if he's alive or dead."

Lula promised to be careful and took off to get cleaned up. Before she left, we made arrangements for her to come back in the morning to try a little walking and jogging.

/

Jeff Wolesky and his crew arrived just as Lula left. His crew disappeared into the house to start their work and Jeff and I sat on the front steps for our little morning meeting. He did his usual progress report and then seemed hesitant to continue. Finally he said, "I know I promised to do this renovation without kicking you out of your house, but I have a request to make." I narrowed my eyes and motioned for him to continue. "Would you consider moving into the garage apartment for a few weeks?"

"Why?"

"If you don't want to, we can still keep doing what we're doing. But, if you move into that garage apartment for a couple of weeks, I think I can cut a lot of time off this project and get it wrapped up in about a month." That was appealing.

"Okay, but only if you do a little work to the garage apartment first."

"I know you wanted to turn it into an office space for you, but what else do you need right now to make you agree to live there?"

"That bathroom is even worse than the red and gold monstrosity in the house because the water pressure is horrible, the toilet doesn't flush properly, and there's mold growing on the walls. I don't need a full kitchen, really, since it's going to be my office, but the fridge doesn't work and I think the stove is older than me. I would like to have a fridge and microwave, though. I don't know, Jeff, just spruce it up before I move in, okay? At the very least, fix the bathroom, please. If you do that, I'll move out of the house and into the apartment."

Jeff conferred with some of his guys, and then came back over. "Okay, if you come with me right now to Home Depot and pick out stuff that is in stock that we can buy from the store and haul back today, we can likely get you into the apartment in a couple of days." I agreed, so Jeff and I hopped in his truck and went shopping. I think he was surprised by how quickly we got everything on his list, but he should never have underestimated a power shopper. We were in and out of the store in less than two hours. I chose to lay ceramic tile throughout the whole space, and chose mid-range quality on all the finishes. I had all new bathroom and kitchen fixtures and dark wood cabinets, although the kitchen area would no longer have a stove in preparation for its future as office space. The whole space would be pretty bland, except for the walls, which would be a sort of dusty teal color.

/

After returning to the house, Jeff and I parted ways for the day. I hopped in the Explorer and headed to Rangeman. Tank sent me a text message while I was shopping with Jeff, telling me to stop by the office when I got a chance. Hopefully he got his hands on a copy of the official report. Once I got to the fifth floor, I smiled and waved at a few of the Rangemen I knew, before knocking on Tank's door. At his answering grunt, I opened the door. Tank was busy typing away at his computer.

He spoke without looking up from his work. "Two things, Steph. First, that guy, Jimmy, that you recommended is coming in for an interview later this week. Just thought you'd want to know. Second, I managed to get copies of everything the DEA and TPD have on your storage unit investigation. It wasn't through official channels, so don't tell anyone you have it. Not even the guys here. For the sake of confidentiality, the file is upstairs in Ranger's apartment on seven, if you want to go up and review it."

"Thanks, Tank! Have I told you lately how awesome you are ?" Tank looked up from his computer screen and raised an eyebrow. I smiled brightly and he shook his head with a grin. Once I got off the elevator on the seventh floor, I took a deep breath before entering the apartment. I hadn't been in Ranger's apartment since before he left on his current mission. I didn't really like being there without him.

I opened the apartment door and could immediately tell the apartment wasn't empty. Someone was there, and it wasn't Ella. A tingly feeling crawled up the back of my neck and I dropped my purse and raced into the living room. Not seeing anyone, I peeked into the bedroom and could hear water running in the en suite bathroom. Wanting to give the Man in Black a little privacy, I returned to the living room area. Spotting the file folder on the coffee table, I sat on the couch to do a little light reading in hopes of furthering my little investigation.

I slowly leafed through the papers, not really sure where to start. Finally I decided to just read through everything from the beginning. Before I got too engrossed in my research, I heard the bedroom door open. I stood up and turned around. The vision that greeted me was mouth-watering. Ranger, dripping wet, wearing only a towel wrapped around his lean waist. I may have drooled and I know my jaw had dropped because when Ranger raised an eyebrow and said, "Babe," my jaw snapped shut. Snapped out of my little trance, I rounded the couch and leaped at him. He met me halfway and wrapped me in a bone crunching hug. My arms and legs were wrapped equally tightly around him. After the ferocity of the hug, the kiss that followed was downright gentle and sweet. Finally we broke apart and stared at each other.

"Did you just get back?"

A nod.

"Are you okay?"

Another nod.

"Are you going to say anything other than 'Babe'?"

This question resulted in a blinding, megawatt smile. "Babe," he started. I rolled my eyes and he continued, "I missed you."

Awww, that brought a little moisture to my eyes. "I missed you too, Batman."

"I'm going to call Ella and have her bring up some food. I'm starving. Do you want to join me?"

"Of course! Have you ever known me to turn down food or your company?"

"Glad to see some things never change, Babe."

After speaking with Ella, Ranger returned to his bedroom to get dressed. Being a guy, that took a whole two minutes. When he returned to the living room, he sat on the couch next to me. He looked over my shoulder at the file holder I was holding.

"What's this?"

"This file contains copies of all the official documents related to the bloody hand and drugs in my storage unit. I'm doing a little independent investigation."

"Bloody hand? Drugs?"

Ah yes, Batman had been off saving the world when all this went down. I explained everything and when I finished, I gave him a covert look under my lashes. He had his blank face firmly in place. I waited for a response, but didn't even get the usual 'Babe'. After several seconds of silence, I couldn't stand it anymore. "I don't want to go to a safe house!" I blurted out.

That got me a reaction. A slight smile ghosted across his lips. "Stephanie, I know better than to _force_ you into a safe house. I hope that if the time comes that it is really necessary, you'll _agree_ to protection in a safe house."

"We'll see. I won't say never, but my death would have to be pretty much imminent before I'd consider it."

Just then Ella knocked on the door, keeping this conversation on safety from turning into an argument. She bustled in, pushing her cart. After setting two covered plates on the dining room table, she welcomed Ranger home and bustled her way out of the apartment. Ranger and I feasted on a healthy but tasty chicken and rice dish. Ella even left me a large fudge brownie for dessert. Ranger, of course, had no dessert and shook his head as I moaned through the brownie.

After we ate, we made quick work of cleaning up the mess. Ranger took me by the hand and led me back to the couch. "Babe, I'm offline for the rest of the day. I'll need to be in the office tomorrow, though. Will you spend the rest of the day with me? We can go through your file and maybe sort out what's going on, if you'd like my help."

"Of course I'll spend the day with you. And I'd love to have any help I can get with this problem. Maybe later I can take you over to my new house and give you the tour. You can do a quality control inspection on the security system your guys installed for me." I finished with a teasing smile. I looked at him, hardly believing he was home and sitting right next to me. I leaned over and kissed and nibbled my way along his jaw until I reached his mouth. Apparently Ranger was impatient, because he suddenly crashed his mouth onto mine. A few months of us being apart and our passion was hot enough to burn. Probably it's better to get that out of the way before we did any investigating, right?


	10. Chapter 10

Author Note: I really enjoy reading your reviews! I also appreciate all the follows/favorites. Thank you very much!

/

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Back in the Game

Ch10

By the time Ranger and I finished getting intimately reacquainted, the day was mostly over. He asked me if I'd stay the night, and I agreed. We took my Explorer back to my house to get some necessities. While I was packing, Ranger wandered the house, checking out the house and the security. When I finished, I found him sitting on my new couch.

"What do you think?"

"Of the house or the security?"

"Both."

"It's a big house for one person, but I can see why you like it. It has character. The place suits you." This was the right answer. He was one of the few people who didn't grimace when they first saw the place.

"As for the security, the guys did a good job. I'd rather there be more cameras, but I understand why you didn't allow any more. I know your privacy is important to you. I like the upgraded locks on the doors as well. Thank you, Stephanie, for taking your security seriously."

"You're welcome. Security is important to the new, improved version of me. I just don't want to head over the edge into paranoia and loss of privacy." Ranger nodded at my statement. I continued, "Did you go outside?" When he shook his head, I took his hand and led him out the back door. We walked to the back of my long, narrow yard to the garage. I showed him the garage itself, which was pretty basic, and its security features. I then took him upstairs to the garage apartment, which Jeff's guys had totally demolished in less than a day. I explained how I'd be moving there in a few days, so the guys could work faster inside the house, but that later I envisioned using the space as an office.

We made our way back through the yard into the house. I gave Rex fresh water and an assortment of fruit and veggie chunks mixed with his hamster crunchies, while telling him it was his job to hold down the fort for the night since I'd be gone. Ranger shook his head at my one-sided conversation with my hamster. He picked up my overnight bag with one hand and wrapped his other arm around my shoulders. I locked up carefully, making sure to set the alarm. I'd have to be back early enough in the morning to let Jeff's crew in, and to meet Lula for our walk/jog session at the park.

I let Ranger drive my Explorer back to Haywood. I was itching to ask about his mission, but knew he couldn't tell me anything. My natural curiosity was driving me nuts, but I managed to restrain myself. I wished he'd take a few days to relax before jumping back into Rangeman business, but that wasn't likely to happen since he wasn't injured or seriously run-down like last time.

/

When we got back to his apartment, I stowed my bag in the bedroom and joined Ranger on his couch. He had the file folder open again. I grabbed a notepad and pen from my purse, so I could take notes since I couldn't take the file itself out of Ranger's apartment. The file consisted of a bunch of loose photocopies of the original documents. After Ranger finished reading the first page, he handed it off to me. We continued in that fashion until we reached the bottom of the pile. I held off on note-taking until after the initial reading.

After we finished, Ranger looked at me. "How does this stuff happen to you? I've never understood how you manage to attract all this crazy shit." When he saw my eyes narrowing and my face turning red, he continued, "Steph, I know you don't do it on purpose. You're right, it usually isn't your fault. But you have to admit, you do tend to be a shit magnet."

I sighed, knowing he was right. "So what is your first impression, after reading through everything?"

"I think someone tried to double cross a drug cartel, but that's just a guess. Something went wrong and you saw the aftermath. What I don't get is why they think you have the missing drugs. Going by the bloody hand, someone in the cartel probably knows about the double cross. Why they think you would have the drugs instead of their traitor, I don't know."

"That's pretty much what I was thinking. The report on the drugs that the police did recover showed that the packages each contained a kilo of cocaine. The blood in the unit was relatively fresh, so the incident probably happened in Newark at the distribution center for the storage unit company. I now know my unit was off loaded in Newark from the train that hauled it east and then loaded on a truck to bring it to Trenton."

I thought for a minute, then asked "Is there a way to find out which cartel is likely to be responsible for the trafficking? Lula offered to discreetly ask questions on Stark, but if these people are based elsewhere, she may not get any answers."

"I can put out some feelers. I have informants in places Lula can't get to." I didn't doubt that for a second.

"They fingerprinted the hand and it belongs to Anthony Costello. I think I went to school with an Anthony Costello, but I don't know if Hand Anthony and School Anthony are the same guy yet. Hand Anthony has an extensive criminal record of drug arrests. The report doesn't say how he was employed, so maybe I could use the Rangeman computers to do an in-depth search on him. Is that okay?"

"Yes, Babe, you can use your old cubicle."

"It's not really my 'old' cubicle, Ranger. I've spent a lot of time in that cubicle lately."

"Explain. You don't exactly need a job these days."

"Well, Tank was overwhelmed while you were gone. Business is booming and the paperwork piled up. I volunteered to come in periodically and help get it under control. I'm sure Tank will fill you in on everything in the morning. You have a new office manager starting soon, so that should help. They offered it to me, but I turned them down."

I jotted down a series of questions I thought needed answering, based on our conversation and from reading the report. I wanted to know who the likely trafficker was of the drugs. I wanted to know if they had ties to the storage unit company, or if this was a random shipment. I needed to find out a lot more about Anthony Costello. Was he still alive? Did he work for the drug traffickers or did he just decide to hijack a shipment of drugs? Most importantly, who had the missing drugs?

Ranger and I decided to make it an early night. We crawled into bed and quickly got ourselves situated into our usual sleeping positions, with me draped all over him. It felt so good to be so close to him. Ranger ran his fingertips up and down my back lightly, making me shiver a little. I lifted my head to look at him and saw his eyes darken. With a smirk, I ran my own fingertips up and down his side lightly, in a move similar to what he was doing to me. Before I could blink, Ranger had me flipped over on my back and he was on top me, mouth sealed to mine. We fell asleep much later, much more relaxed.

/

The next morning, I dragged myself out of bed when Ranger did, at the freakin' crack ass-o-dawn. Five in the morning is a ridiculous time to wake up, in my opinion. I think Ranger was shocked to see me out of bed and dressed in workout clothes when he came out of the bathroom. I'd decided that since today's walk/jog session with Lula wasn't likely to get my heart rate up very much, I would take advantage of Rangeman's gym and use the treadmill. I did my thing in the bathroom real quick, and followed Ranger down to the gym. We each got on a treadmill and started off. Five miles later, I was done. Ranger was still running, so I waved goodbye and went up to seven to shower. I could have showered at my house, but I'm in love with Ranger's shower and didn't want to miss an opportunity to use it.

I got home just in time to let Jeff and his guys in. Unlike Steve, who had a key and the alarm code, Jeff and his guys would have to wait for me to let them in. It's not that I don't trust Jeff, but I'm really trying to be more security conscious now that I'm back in Trenton. I checked on Rex and started a pot of coffee. By the time I went upstairs to change into fresh workout clothes, the coffee was done.

As I finished my first cup of the day, Lula arrived, dressed in yet another outrageous workout outfit. I grabbed my phone and keys and stuck them in the little zippered pocket of my shorts and we were out the door. By the end of our short walk to the park, Lula was already breathing hard. I sort of felt like it was the blind leading the blind when it came to me directing Lula's fitness regimen, but I decided to continue on. Lula wanted to know how far she was going to have to run, and I shrugged my shoulders.

"When I started, I just paid more attention to how long I ran instead of how far I ran. It seemed to work for me, so let's try it for you, okay?" She nodded, so I continued, "How about we do a combo of speed walking and jogging for twenty minutes today and see how it goes?"

"I can do that," she agreed. "I'm gonna run the shit outta those twenty minutes. You watch."

I did watch as I kept up with her. I thought she was gonna die by the end, but Lula managed a slow jog for the entire time. I imagined that was what I probably looked like when I finished running as well. "Lula, that was awesome! I'm proud of you!" I told her as we strolled back to my house. I always felt good when Ranger told me he was proud of me, and was hoping it would work on Lula too.

She beamed. "Yeah, thanks. That was hard, but I feel pretty good now." We stretched a little when we got home, and I invited her in for coffee and cereal.

"Are you too sore for more yoga tomorrow?"

"Nope. I'm sore, but it's not that bad."

I thought about my investigation and debated whether to involve Lula, despite her offer of help.

"White girl, what're you thinkin' about so hard?"

Decision made, I replied, "Are you still willing to ask around a bit about those drugs?"

"Oh yeah, and I'll be real sneaky about it too. What do ya got?"

I told her about Anthony Costello and his missing hand and how I wanted to know if he was alive or dead. I basically ran down my entire list of questions I'd made after reading the file the night before. "You don't have to get answers to all these questions, Lula. I just wanted you to have an idea of the type of info I'm looking for."

After we finished our cereal, I walked Lula to the door. "I'll be discreet and ask around, okay? I'm gonna catch me a skip or two today and I'll see you for yoga tomorrow." Lula drove off, the bass from her stereo rattling my windows.

I showered for the second time that day and dressed like mini-Ranger, so I could do some searches at Rangeman. Their search engines would hopefully help me find out a lot more details about my investigation.


	11. Chapter 11

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Back in the Game

Ch11

At Rangeman, I made my way to my cubicle. I noticed a small stack of searches in my inbox. I wondered what would happen if I didn't do them. I wasn't a regular employee. How did they even know if I'd be there from one day to the next? Flipping through the search requests, they were all routine checks of low priority. Guess it wouldn't hurt if they sat for a few days, but I couldn't stand seeing stuff in my inbox so I got to work. Two hours later, I was finished. I stood and stretched before delivering the completed files to the men who'd requested them.

I stopped in the break room to grab a chocolate chip granola bar and bottle of water. It wasn't my idea of a good snack, but everything else was disgustingly healthy. I started my search on Anthony Costello, the one with the missing hand. While the search was running, I did a little basic internet research on the storage unit company. _Portable Storage & Moving Units_, real creative name for a company, was based in Newark and had been in operation for ten years. They used a combination of trains and trucks to ship the units across the country. The website boasted that they were a family owned and operated company. The site even showed a picture of the Milovich family beaming in front of the Newark distribution center. It didn't list any first names, but at least I had a last name to look out for on other searches.

My search on Anthony Costello finished about then. I collected the large stack of papers off the printer and brought it back to my cubicle and broke out my favorite blue highlighter. I quickly realized that Hand Anthony and School Anthony were one and the same. This was good for me, since his mother lived in the 'Burg. I could get info on her and her son through the 'Burg grapevine. Anthony wasn't a major player in the drug trade, he was pretty minor in the scheme of things. He was more of a user who occasionally dealt. He had a preference for crack, which fit since the drugs found in my unit were cocaine.

What I found very interesting was that Anthony was a former employee of the storage unit company. He'd been fired a few years ago after one of his drug arrests. That explained why the cops didn't find any evidence of an employee either dead or missing a hand when they searched the company's premises in Newark, he wasn't a current employee. He must have, at the minimum, kept in touch with someone inside the company to know about the drugs being in my unit, though. The search was thorough, but didn't tell me if Anthony was alive or dead. Maybe Lula or Ranger would uncover that information. I went back through search results, looking for any connections named Milovich, besides the former employer/employee connection, but didn't see anything. I jotted down several names of Anthony's known criminal associates in Trenton and Newark, maybe Lula and Ranger would know some of these people.

My rumbling stomach let me know it was time for lunch. I shut down my computer and gathered my belongings before walking to Ranger's office. My tap on the door was answered with a sharp, "Enter!" I opened the door and stuck my head in, wanting to check the room out before I interrupted a meeting or something. Ranger was sitting at his desk, barely visible behind a pile of paper, with his attention glued to the computer monitor. He glanced up, blank face in place. I smiled and gave a finger-wave.

"If this is a bad time, I can catch up with you later."

"No. Just trying to get caught up, although it's not as bad as usual for some reason. Tank mentioned you had something to do with that. Thank you, Babe."

"No problem, Ranger. I was glad to help. Your new office manager should help even more."

"That was a great idea. I wish I'd thought of it a few years ago. And your idea to use a Rangeman who needed to be retired from field duty was excellent. Stephanie, you have no idea how much the core team and I appreciate what you've done."

Uncomfortable with this much praise, I changed the subject. "Like I said, I was glad to help you out for a change. So, anyway. I'm hungry. Do you want to have lunch with me?"

"Sure, give me a few minutes to wrap this up." He finished typing his email and hit send. I liked watching Ranger. Obviously he was fabulous to look at, but I was also fascinated by all the hats he wore. Today I was seeing Business Ranger. I've seen Ghetto Ranger, Military Ranger, Gap Ranger, and others. He was like a super-hot human chameleon. My mental musings were interrupted when Ranger stood, and in one smooth move was around the desk and dipping his head to take my mouth in a quick kiss.

We stepped into the hall and walked to the stairs, with Ranger's hand resting on my lower back. I guess we weren't eating lunch in the break room or up in his apartment. Ranger opened the passenger door of his Porsche 911 and I slid in, relishing the feel of the buttery leather seats. Ranger drove us to Pino's, my favorite place for pizza and meatball subs. Since Ranger didn't know what good food was, he'd be eating one of Pino's less than stellar salads. I let out an involuntary moan when I bit into my meatball sub. I watched as Ranger's eyes darkened and he shifted slightly in his seat. It made me blush a bit to know I affected him like that.

After lunch, Ranger drove us back to the office, where we parted ways in the garage. He was headed upstairs to five to finish getting caught up on everything he missed while he was out of contact. I decided to swing by the bonds office and check in with Connie and Lula. Lula's Firebird wasn't in sight, so she must have been out trying to catch skips. I strolled into the office and saw Connie filing. Filing used to be Lula's job, although she wasn't very good at it. I grabbed some folders off the stack and started helping Connie. Since the bonds office burned down a while back, Connie has made sure that everything in the files is now backed up on the computer, but having hard copies of the information is easier for the bounty hunter, I thought. We quickly finished and Connie sat in her chair, reaching for her ever-present bottle of nail polish.

"Do you remember Anthony Costello?" I asked her. Connie was a few years older than me, but we were in high school at the same time. Anthony would have been between us age-wise.

"The name's familiar. Doesn't his mother live in the 'Burg?"

"Yep. He had a lot of drug problems. Do you remember hearing anything else?"

"I don't think so. We didn't run in the same circles. Why do you ask?" I explained that Hand Anthony and School Anthony were the same guy, and that I was hoping to find out if he was alive or dead.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help you out more, Steph."

"It's okay. I knew it was a long shot. I figure I might as well ask everyone and maybe I'll get a surprise answer one of these days." We chatted a bit, with Connie catching me up on a little local gossip. Connie got a call about bonding someone out and while she was busy on the phone, I figured I could swing by my parents' house and ask Mom and Grandma some questions. I waved to Connie and walked out to my Explorer.

I could immediately tell that something was wrong. On closer examination, all four tires were slashed. A note was held down by the windshield wipers. With a sigh, I pulled out my phone and called Ranger and then Morelli. This was going to be a little more expensive than the windshield replacement. I took a picture of the note with my phone. '_We want what is ours. Our next message will include blood being spilled'. _

This was getting ridiculous. Again, how am I supposed to know who I'm to return the missing drugs to? Frustrated, I yelled out, hoping maybe the mysterious tire slasher was still in the vicinity. "Who are you people? How about leaving a phone number or something so I can actually talk to you? I don't have what you want, and never had it. But I can't tell you that without a way to get in touch with you!"

People on the sidewalks stopped and stared at me. I was sure my mother would start calling soon, wanting to know why I was making a scene. I was startled when a hand landed on my shoulder. I swung my heavy purse around as hard as I could, whacking the person in the stomach.

"Babe," Ranger gasped. I quickly turned around and saw him holding his stomach. "What do you have in that bag? It should be registered as a weapon."

"Omigod! I'm sorry Ranger! You scared me."

"Glad to see you ready to defend yourself, although we need to work on you using something other than a purse as a weapon."

I gestured towards the Explorer. "Four slashed tires this time, and another nasty-gram."

Morelli pulled up just then in his POS unmarked cop car. "Cupcake, we meet again."

"I wasn't even in the bonds office that long! It was a last-minute decision to stop here!"

"I called the crime scene unit on my way here and alerted the DEA guy in charge of the case. I'm just here for moral support, but I see you already have that." Morelli and I were well on our way to being friends, but there was still left-over tension between him and Ranger, even after a year.

"Thanks for coming, Joe. I don't know the DEA guy. I know and trust you so that's why I called you. I'm sorry if I took you away from something important."

"It's okay, Cupcake. I'm just glad you're okay. I'm gonna take off, though. The CSU team and DEA agent should be here soon."

Joe drove off and I leaned back into Ranger's chest. "What am I going to do, Ranger? This latest note is promising violence if I don't deliver what I don't have." I could hear a slight hint of hysteria in my voice.

"We'll figure it out. I put out a few feelers and should hear something back soon. If all else fails, it might be a good time for you to take a nice vacation far away."

"Would you go with me?"

"Probably not a good idea to leave the office right after I got back."

"Then I'm not going on vacation."

"Babe."

"Please don't 'Babe' me, Ranger. I'll just have to work harder to figure this out." I waited a minute and continued, "At least they haven't totally destroyed the Explorer yet. A windshield and now four tires are things that are easily replaced."

I swear Ranger almost rolled his eyes at that statement. After I finished giving my statement, Ranger put his hand on my back and guided me over to the Porsche. "Where to?"

"My parents' house. I want to question Mom and Grandma about Anthony's mom and I can pick up Big Blue while I'm there." Mom and Grandma didn't really offer any useful information, but I did get chocolate chip cookies and the keys to Big Blue so it wasn't a wasted trip.

I drove home and parked Big Blue in the garage. I went upstairs to check out the garage apartment. Jeff and his guys had laid tile today and it looked pretty good. After checking that progress I went into my house and rummaged through the fridge, pulling out a beer. Taking my beer and bag of chocolate chip cookies into the living room, I flopped on the couch and turned on the TV. I must have dozed off in the middle of channel surfing, because the next thing I knew, it was dark in the living room and my doorbell was ringing.

I staggered to my feet and looked through the peep-hole. Ranger. I disarmed the alarm and unlocked all the assorted bolts on my door. When I finally got the door open, Ranger was looking impatient. "Sorry! These locks take a minute to get them all undone. Why didn't you just break in like you used to?"

Ranger had a slightly pained look on his face. "Steph, I'm trying to be a little more courteous here."

I noticed he had a duffle bag in one hand. "What's with the bag?"

"I'm staying here tonight. I hadn't planned on it, but the thought of being in my apartment alone didn't appeal." That worked for me. I always slept better next to Ranger anyway. Before I forgot, I went to the kitchen and got the set of spare keys. I presented the keys to Ranger and told him the alarm code.

"You're the only one with keys and the code besides me. I'm trying to be more responsible here, but I don't want you to have to ring the doorbell."

"Babe," he said with a smile.

I offered him beer and cookies. He took the beer, but refused the cookies. We watched TV for a few hours before heading upstairs to bed. We made love before arranging ourselves into our intertwined sleeping positions. This was the life, I thought to myself as I drifted off to sleep. Well, except for the mysterious threats of violence anyway.


	12. Chapter 12

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Back in the Game

Ch12

Ranger was up and gone early the next morning. He dropped a kiss on my forehead after he told me he was heading out. I think I may have grunted in response before rolling over and going back to sleep. I woke up a few hours later, when the sun was actually up. Lula was coming to do yoga in a little while so I hurried to get dressed and get the coffee started. Jeff and his crew showed up and I let them into the garage apartment. Jeff told me they anticipated the apartment being ready for me in probably two more days. Lula arrived shortly after that and we went up the stairs to the attic, where I got the DVD started for us. Lula did much better today.

After we finished, we clomped down the stairs to the kitchen where we fixed ourselves coffee and Frosted Flakes. Lula told me she brought in a skip yesterday and had no problems. "I tried to do like you said, and be nice. It was hard, 'cuz the guy was kind of an ass, but I got him to the station and didn't get covered in any nasty shit or get in a fight with him. It's gonna take some practice though, to change my attitude like you said."

"Go Lula! That's awesome! I knew you could do it, and I bet you'll be able to keep it up."

"Yeah, well, something had to give. It ain't cheap to look like I do, and it was gettin' expensive to keep getting my hair and nails fixed and replace my clothes."

"Whatever works as an incentive, I guess. You did it, that's what's important."

"I had so much time after bringin' the skip in, I had time to go talk to my girl, Jackie. You remember her, right? She's still workin' a corner down on Stark Street."

I remembered Jackie. The last time I saw her, Lula was trying to get her into rehab after we found her boyfriend and pimp dead and frozen solid by a dumpster. "So what's new with Jackie?"

"Well, business is goin' real good for her, now that she got a new pimp. He's actually keepin' her off the hard stuff too, only lettin' her smoke a little pot. She needs a new job, but at least she's mostly off drugs."

"I'm glad the rehab thing worked for he. And I guess it's good her pimp sorta has a conscience too, weird as that sounds. A pimp who keeps his hookers off drugs?"

"Anyway, I asked her 'bout Anthony Costello. Word is that he's still alive, but hidin' out. Jackie don't know where. Supposedly he was in business with a drug family from Russia or somethin' and he decided to hijack a shipment for himself."

That fit with what I'd discovered during my Rangeman search. I wasn't sure if the Milovich family was Russian or not, but they definitely looked Eastern European. "Lula, you rock! Please thank Jackie for me, too. Now I just need to find Anthony. I'm sure he's got the missing drugs. I need to get them and return them to the Milovich family before they come after me. Ideally I'd figure out a way to get them all in jail, but I'm willing to settle with just getting them off my back."

"I told Jackie to keep her ears and eyes open for news on Anthony. He's a dude with a missing hand, he'll stand out if he comes out of hiding at all."

Lula left to go get cleaned up so she could get her day started. She was coming back in the morning to do another twenty-minute jog. I was totally impressed that she would be working out four days in a row. In the past, she and I usually quit the fitness kick after only a day or two. I showered and did the hair and makeup thing. I added an extra coat of mascara for courage, since I planned on calling the Milovich family today. I had a feeling I would need all the help I could get.

After dressing in a black knee-length twill cargo skirt, flat black leather gladiator sandals, and a slinky black silk tank top, I decided to go to Rangeman and hopefully talk to Ranger. I parked in my usual spot and took the elevator up to five. When I stepped out of the elevator car, I was surprised to see a familiar face I hadn't seen in a while. "Jimmy!"

"Stephanie? What are you doing here?"

"How do you think I knew to tell you about this place? When did you get in? Did Doris come with you?"

"I just got here. Grandma is still at home. Steve and his sister are keeping an eye on her."

Lester cut in, "Beautiful, I hate to interrupt the reunion, but we really have to go. Jimmy's testing process will take up most of the day and his flight back to Illinois leaves early tomorrow morning."

"Sorry guys! Good luck, Jimmy. I'd really like to see you and Doris here in Trenton soon. Hint, hint, Lester!" Both men laughed and gave me a hug before stepping onto the elevator. I walked down to Ranger's office and knocked lightly.

/

"Come on in, Babe."

"How did you know it was me?"

"I could hear you talking to Lester and the potential new guy. There isn't usually a lot of laughter here unless you're around."

Hunh. "Do you have a minute?"

"For you, Stephanie, of course. What's going on?"

I told him about what Lula learned from Jackie and how it backed up what I learned from my searches the day before. "I want to call the Milovich's directly. I'm sick of those stupid, vague notes. Do you have any idea which Milovich I should talk to, or should I just call the main company and ask for the guy in charge of the drugs to call me back?" I was only partly joking about the last part. I was really annoyed.

Ranger had a slightly pained look on his face. "Don't just call the company, please. Let me make a few calls, see if my informants have a phone number for you. And I want you to make the call here, so I can listen in."

I was okay with that. That was the main reason for me coming to the office anyway. I was hoping Ranger would get me a phone number. He told me to give him an hour or so, and he'd come find me. I decided to check out my usual cubicle while I was waiting. There were no searches in the inbox, which I found amazing.

I strolled over to the monitors to chat with the guys. I noticed Jimmy and Lester on the screen monitoring the gym. They were sparring. I dragged over a chair to watch the match. I didn't really know much about what they were doing, but they seemed to my uneducated eyes to be fairly evenly matched. Soon, they were finished and Tank appeared on the screen. He stepped into the ring as Lester stepped out and next Tank and Jimmy were sparring. Poor Jimmy, he was gonna be sore although Tank didn't seem to be beating him too bad. I must have really zoned out, because I jumped and let out a squeak when a hand clapped down on my shoulder.

"Need to be more aware of my surroundings, I know that's what you're going to say Batman."

"Smartass. Come with me."

We returned to Ranger's office, with Ranger shutting the door behind us. He handed me a slip of paper with a phone number and name on it. It looked like I'd be calling Ivan Milovich. My hands were shaking as I held the piece of paper. I may have talked a bold game, but in actuality I was pretty darned scared. I let out the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

"You don't have to do this, Steph." As usual, Ranger knew exactly what I was thinking.

"Yeah, I do. How are we going to do this? Do you want me to put it on speaker?"

"Yes, and I've set it so that we'll be recording the conversation. We'll be using a disposable phone. It isn't difficult to find someone's phone number, but I'd rather not hand him yours on a silver platter."

"Is Ivan the top of the food chain or is he more middle management?"

"He's the top."

Great. Okay, I could do this. I dialed the number and set the speaker phone option. It rang three times before it was answered with a barked, "Speak!"

"Um, hi. Is this Ivan Milovich?"

"Who wants to know?" the male voice asked in a nasal Jersey accent.

"This is Stephanie Plum. I'd like to speak with Ivan Milovich, please." Unh, my mother's good manners were coming through even when I was talking to a drug dealer.

"Ah, Stephanie Plum, so good to hear from you. I am Ivan. Do you have something for me?" the nasal voice purred. I was going to need a shower after talking to this guy.

"No, I sure don't, I am sorry to say. Believe me when I tell you that I have no interest in your drugs. I don't have them now and I never had them."

"This is a problem, Stephanie. You were told that we want what is ours. I'm not sure that I believe you."

"Look, Ivan, the cops confiscated the few kilos that were in the unit. I don't know how many you're missing, but the cops have everything that was in the unit."

"I am missing more than just a few kilos, Stephanie."

"Do you know about Anthony Costello? His hand was found with the drugs. Maybe you should be looking at Anthony to get your drugs back?"

"I am not, I hate to say, aware of Mr. Costello's current location. If I were, he'd be missing more than a hand."

Oh, ick. "Okay, I'm at a loss here, Ivan. I really don't have the drugs. I don't have any need of them. I just want this nightmare to be over without causing me any pain for something that is totally not my fault."

"I've done some research on you, Stephanie Plum. You have a habit of sticking your nose where it doesn't belong, and somehow solving mysteries that stump the cops. Even if you are telling me the truth, and I grant that it's possible you might be, I still want those missing kilos back. Do your detecting thing and find the drugs. If you do, I won't let my men hurt you."

This was not what I had in mind. I looked at Ranger. He grimaced and then nodded. "Um, okay? I mean, what choice do I have? I am going to need time for this. I'm far from a miracle worker. I also need you guys to stop damaging my car and threatening me. It only slows me down."

"You have a week. I expect results." Ivan disconnected after that.

"Well, that went well," I chirped with a shaky laugh. Ranger grabbed my hand and pulled me onto his lap. I buried my face into the crook of his neck and the scent of his Bulgari shower gel instantly soothed me a little. "How am I going to do this, Ranger?" I mumbled into his neck.

"You've got me and all of Rangeman at your disposal, Babe. Ivan was right. You're good at solving mysteries. I won't let you get hurt."

"I love you, Ranger. Have I told you that lately?"

"I love you too, Steph."


	13. Chapter 13

Author Note: The reviews, favorites, and follows are awesome! Thanks to you all.

/

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Back in the Game

Ch13

I spent the rest of the day on the phone, trying to use my own personal network to track down Anthony. I didn't have much success, although my cousin at the DMV did give me the address on his driver's license and the license plate and description of his vehicle. I called all the hospitals in both Trenton and Newark, since the idiot recently had his hand violently amputated. Since he was still alive, I hoped that meant he'd sought medical treatment somewhere. Unfortunately, no one had turned up recently missing a hand.

Ranger alerted the Rangeman guys to keep their eyes and ears open while they were out and about. I was hoping Anthony would be stupid enough to try to unload the kilos of coke on the streets before all the heat died down surrounding the incident, or that he would be stupid enough to come out of hiding. I only had a week to find the missing drugs.

I convinced Ranger to join me for dinner at my parents' house. He wasn't thrilled with the idea, but since we're giving the whole relationship thing a chance, that means he periodically gets subjected to family dinners. I still had yet to meet his family, except for his cousin Lester and aunt Ella, both of whom work at Rangeman. I also invited Jimmy, but he wasn't through with his testing process yet.

We arrived at 5:54, and as usual, Mom and Grandma were both on the porch waiting for us. Ranger parked the Porsche at the curb and came around to open my door for me. He stood there for a second, with his back to the house. Finally I looked up at him, trying to figure out why he wouldn't get out of my way so I could get out of the car.

"Babe, keep your grandma away from me, please. She's got quick hands and she's surprisingly strong for her age. It's painful and humiliating."

"I'll protect you, Batman," I said with a smirk. I feared that if I didn't, he'd never come back. Taking the lead as we climbed the front steps meant Ranger could sort of hide behind me. Grandma had a gleam in her eye and she rubbed her hands together.

"Oh goody, you brought the bounty hunter with the nice package."

"Hands off, Grandma. This one's mine, and I'm keeping him. I don't share, so you'll have to find someone else to grope," I said with my best 'Burg glare. Mom crossed herself at the exchange. I didn't dare break eye contact with Grandma to look behind me to see how Ranger was holding up.

"Well, ain't that a pip. You sure do know how to ruin an old lady's fun." She turned around and stomped into the house. I knew she wasn't really mad, she was just playing up her drama queen role.

Mom hesitated a bit, then said, "Hello, Ranger. It's nice to see you again. I hope we'll be seeing you more often." This was big for my mom. She had been known to have negative things to say about Ranger in the past, back when she was pushing me towards Joe. Now, she basically accepted Ranger as my boyfriend with her invitation to visit more often. I smiled at her and mouthed a thank you.

Ranger gave her his megawatt smile, which had Mom blushing and blinking rapidly, and replied, "Thank you, Mrs. Plum. It's a pleasure to spend time with Stephanie's family." Pleasantries out of the way, we trooped into the house. The clock was ticking down to 6:00 after all. We wouldn't want the meal to be ruined if it wasn't served promptly at 6:00.

Dinner was roast chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes, rolls, and a small dish of broccoli. Usually no one ate the broccoli, but tonight I was willing to bet the whole dish would be eaten by Ranger since he's a veggie nut. As usual, silence ruled at the beginning while everyone dug into the meal. Finally, Grandma spoke up.

"So, Stephanie, what's the latest on the case of the missing hand?"

I filled everyone in on what was happening, leaving out the threats of physical violence. "I know I asked you about him once, but I really need to find Anthony Costello. He's missing a hand and he's hiding out somewhere. He grew up here and him mom still lives in the 'Burg. Someone has to know something. It's impossible to keep a secret in this neighborhood."

This time it was my mother who spoke. "We'll keep our ears and eyes open, Stephanie. His mother is a good woman, but that Anthony was always no good. Your grandmother may hear something at the beauty parlor, and while I do my daily shopping someone may let something slip."

"Wow, Mom! I'd really appreciate your help!" Have I said lately how much I loved this new version of my mother?

Dad was next. "I'll do the same. With the lodge and driving the cab, I see a different crowd than your mother and grandmother."

"Thanks, Dad. That would be really great."

"No problem, Pumpkin. You're my daughter and I want to help. Besides, I can't ever thank you enough for the second bathroom." Last Christmas, my present to my parents and grandma was to hire a contractor to add a second bathroom and man cave to the basement. My father was ecstatic, because he and my grandma no longer had to fight over the bathroom in the morning.

Mom brought out the dessert after that. While the rest of us enjoyed red velvet cake, Ranger had a dish of cut fruit drizzled with honey. This was another sign that Mom accepted Ranger. She prepared a healthy dessert for him.

As Ranger and I drove away from the 'Burg, he asked if I wanted to stay on seven with him. I, of course, said yes and he drove me to my house so I could pack a small bag. I already had toiletries permanently in residence at Ranger's apartment, but the clothing choice was limited to a few Rangeman uniforms. My Explorer was already at Rangeman, so I hopped back in the Porsche and Ranger drove back to the office on Haywood.

We watched a little TV, but couldn't find anything interesting on any of his 300 channels. I knew of something that would be tons more entertaining that watching TV. I looked at Ranger under my lashes and could feel a little smile curl the corners of my mouth. Ranger looked at me and smirked. He knew exactly what I was thinking. Without saying a word, we adjourned to the bedroom. In between scorching hot kisses, we stripped each others clothes off and practically dove into the bed. Like I said, much better than TV.

The next morning dawned way too early. I got up with Ranger and went down to the gym. After my run, I waved good-bye and went upstairs to use Ranger's heavenly shower. Ella appeared while I was showering and was setting out breakfast for one when I exited the bedroom.

"Good morning, Ella."

"Good morning, dear. I made you pancakes this morning. I know how much you love them."

"You brought up breakfast just for me?"

"It was no trouble. I'll be back with Ranger's breakfast in a little while. I knew you'd be leaving soon and wanted you to have a good meal before you left."

"Have I told you lately how much I love you, Ella?" I dug into the pancakes with a moan of pure bliss. After stuffing myself full, I gathered my stuff and took the elevator down to the garage. With my belly that full, I'd be hard pressed to keep up with Lula on our twenty-minute jog later.

Once home, I let the construction crew in and made a pot of coffee while I was waiting for Lula. I heard Lula's bass thumping before she ever turned down my street. I met her on the porch and we stretched a little. Lula's not really a morning person either, so she didn't have much to say. We walked down to the park and started at a slow jog. We ran at the same pace as the other day and for the same amount of time. Lula finished with no problems and it seemed like it was a little easier for her this time.

We got back to the house and I invited Lula in for a cold bottle of water and then a hot cup of coffee. She told me Jackie had heard rumors about someone with a lot of cocaine on their hands. Jackie didn't know who it was. I wondered if it was Anthony. I didn't really know much about drugs and so wasn't sure how normal it would be to have large amounts of drugs like Anthony had.

After Lula left, I got cleaned up again and dressed in a pretty floral print peasant blouse paired with blue jeans and comfortable sandals. I spent the rest of the day figuratively beating the bushes for Anthony. I stopped a lot of people in the 'Burg and asked questions. No one had seen or heard from him lately. My gut instinct told me none of them were probably lying.

I made sure my gun was loaded, stun gun was fully charged, and that I had a full can of pepper spray. I wanted to venture down to Stark Street. I called Ranger before I got there, to let him know where I would be, just for safety's sake.

Ranger gave me a slightly pained, "Babe," and then told me to wait for backup. He was sending me a pair of Merry Men to 'help' me. In other words, I was getting bodyguards. It annoyed me slightly, but I was going to Stark Street, and I do have an unpleasantly dangerous history. I couldn't complain too much.

Junior and Zip rolled up in their black Rangeman SUV. I walked to their vehicle and Junior rolled down the drivers window. After explaining what I was hoping to do, they climbed out of the vehicle and followed behind me. I'm sure we were quite a sight. Me, in my colorful clothes and crazy hair, followed by two hulking, heavily armed, men dressed in all black. Nobody had anything much they were willing to tell me, although I did find a few other people besides Jackie who told me they heard Anthony was alive, even though no one had actually seen him.

I called it quits late in the afternoon and drove back home, after Junior and Zip went over my vehicle carefully to make sure no one left any 'surprises' anywhere on the Explorer. While talking to Ranger earlier, we made plans to go out for dinner so I wanted plenty of time to make sure I looked my best. I had a suspicion that I would spend the night again with Ranger, and re-packed my little bag just in case.

I hadn't gained any significant information today, despite all my activity, but I did confirm some things I already knew or suspected. I now had less than a week to find the missing drugs, so I really hoped something would come to light soon. Ah well, tomorrow is another day.


	14. Chapter 14

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Back in the Game

Ch14

The next day was a bust, investigation-wise. Lula and I did yoga in the morning. Jeff and his crew finished up my new garage apartment the evening before. Considering I chose all the finishes in a mad-dash shopping spree and Jeff's guys worked like speed-demons to get it done in just a few days, it came together very nicely. It wouldn't be my first choice for a cozy living space, but it would be very nice in its future as an office. It was absolutely better than my old apartment. Jeff even got his guys to take apart my bed, move it, and reassemble it in the new space. They also moved my dresser, night stands, and clothes. A few rugs, a small table, and some chairs chosen from the assortment of furniture still piled in my living room completed my new temporary living space. The guys did the heavy lifting, and Lula stayed behind to help arrange and unpack everything. Once I moved Rex's cage from the house into the apartment, it became home.

After they all left, I took advantage of my new bathroom. I loved the water pressure and bright white fixtures. It was so much better than the red sink and toilet and gold flocked wallpaper. The bathroom was tiny, but everything worked just like it was supposed to. I did the hair and makeup thing and then dressed in a crisp blue blouse and dark jeans paired with my black steel toed CAT boots. I wanted to be ready in case I actually stumbled into something during the day's investigation.

I double checked that my gun was still loaded, stun gun was still charged, and my pepper spray and handcuffs were still in my purse. I grabbed my list of Anthony's known associates off the kitchen counter and I was ready to roll. When I left Ranger's apartment this morning, I promised him I'd let him know my plans once I decided on them so I sent him a text explaining my plan for the day. I was going to do a repeat of yesterday and knock on a bunch of doors. Hopefully I'd get some of the people I'd missed yesterday. Even more, I hoped that one of those people knew where Anthony or the drugs were. At this point, I only wanted to find Anthony so I could find the drugs. If the drugs were found without Anthony's assistance, then so much the better.

As I backed my Explorer out of my garage, a phone rang. It took me a second to realize it was the disposable phone I'd called Ivan Milovich on the other day. Ranger gave me the phone after the conversation and told me to hang on to it in case I needed to talk to Ivan. I dug it out of my purse and answered. "Hello, Ivan."

"Stephanie, how are you today?"

"I'm getting ready to go knock on some more doors in an effort to find either Anthony or, preferably, the drugs."

"That's why I called. I just wanted to remind you that you only have a few days left."

"I am well aware of that, believe me. I don't suppose you have any information that might help me out here?"

"No, if I knew anything, I'd be following up on it myself."

"Okay then. Well, this has been a nice chat, but I'm gonna go now."

"Take care, Stephanie. I'll be talking to you again in a few days." Ivan disconnected and I shivered in revulsion. The man's voice was so creepy and slimy. I debated going back to the apartment and showering again, but decided to just shake it off and keep going.

Six hours later, I was worn out both emotionally and physically. I'd trudged around half of Trenton asking about Anthony. No one had anything they were willing to tell me. It was like Anthony had dropped off the face of the earth. I was beginning to wonder if the rumors of him being alive were false, and he was actually lying dead somewhere. Ivan's call earlier in the day rattled me more than I thought and I now had a countdown clock running in my head that I'd rather wasn't there.

Ranger was busy with a takedown, so I picked up some Chinese food and stopped at 7-11 for beer before going home to my new apartment. I chowed down on chicken fried rice and egg rolls, washing the food down with a few beers while watching Ghostbusters. On the verge of passing out, I was startled awake by a knock at the door. I looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was already 9:00. I looked through the peephole and saw Ranger standing outside. After disengaging the alarm and all the assorted locks and dead bolts, I opened the door for him to come in. He was carrying a duffel bag and looked worn out. After a brief kiss, I offered him a beer. He took it and sank gracefully into an armchair in front of the TV. I told him about my day, and he filled me in on the takedown. It was kinda homey. I could tell he was tired and suggested we call it an early night. He didn't argue and fell asleep almost immediately after sliding into bed.

/

Ranger woke up at his usual time to go back to the office on Haywood for his workout. I, however, decided to stay in bed a few more hours until Lula was due to arrive. A twenty-minute jog with her wasn't quite as good as a five-mile run, but I was feeling lazy.

After our jog, Lula came up to the apartment for our usual water and coffee. I was impressed that she wasn't pressing me for donuts or McDonald's in the mornings, although I had no idea what she was eating the rest of the day. Like I told her, I wasn't into dieting and still ate whatever I wanted. Lula was regaling me with stories of some of her recent skips. It sounded like she was having slightly better success, which was good to hear. She asked me to help her with one that kept eluding her, through what sounded like no fault of her own. She only had two more days left to bring him in, so we made plans to meet in a few hours to try to bring him in.

I puttered around the apartment after she left. I cleaned Rex's cage out and gave him fresh shavings and a new soup can. His water bottle was sparkling fresh and he got a few grapes in his food dish. Looking in the fridge, I could tell I needed to go grocery shopping. Despite my prayers, the food fairy still doesn't visit me. These days my empty cupboards have nothing to do with my empty wallet like in the past. Now it was an issue of laziness on my part.

Finally it was time to go meet Lula at the bonds office. My outfit was essentially a repeat of the day before, just substituting a green blouse for the blue one. I did a quick check that all my stuff was still ready to go, gun, stun gun, cuffs, and spray. I grabbed my phone and clomped down the stairs to the Explorer.

I made a quick stop at Tasty Pastry to get a snack for the girls. Of course, I also picked up a Boston Creme or two for myself. Lula and Connie were in their usual spots in the office and I got the usual reaction when they saw the box of donuts. After the initial enthusiastic greeting, silence reigned for several minutes while our sugary treats were devoured.

"Alright, Lula, where's the file on this skip?" Lula handed it over and I started flipping through the pages slowly. Eugene Johnson was a pickpocket and purse snatcher. He had been a state champion track star in high school. Rather than use his running skills to get scholarships to pay for furthering his education, Eugene used his running skills to help his life of crime. Even with running five miles a few times a week, there was no way I could keep up with this guy. We were going to have to be sneaky.

Connie, Lula, and I brainstormed for a while. Finally we had a plan. Lula had several run ins with the guy, none of which had ended well for her. Connie had bonded him out before. I had never brought in Eugene during my bounty hunter career and since I'd been gone for a year, chances were he wouldn't know who I was. We hoped.

I went home to change clothes. Eugene targeted the area around the state complex, an area full of busy professionals likely to have some cash, not paying attention to their wallets and purses. I was going for the ditzy office professional look. Hopefully I'd look like an easy mark. I chose a light grey suit with a bright red, low-cut silk tank. The skirt was fairly short and the tank showed a little cleavage with help from a Miracle Bra. I worked my hair into big, fluffy curls and slathered on the makeup. A pair of four-inch, black heels completed the look. I made sure I had Connie's contribution handy. She provided a powerful stun gun that was disguised as a lipstick.

Since I refused to sacrifice another car while chasing down a skip, Lula swung by to pick me up. While I was getting ready, she'd done a pass through Eugene's territory and confirmed he was 'working' today. She dropped me off a few blocks from Eugene's location. I chatted on the phone with Lula as I strolled towards Eugene. I could see him out of the corner of my eye. I stopped and sat on a bench and started digging through my purse, making sure to 'accidentally' flash a little cash. I set my purse next to me on the bench and continued gossiping with Lula on the phone. I had my lipstick stun gun in hand ready to act.

I knew I'd caught his attention while I was strolling down the sidewalk. A short skirt and a hint of cleavage worked almost every time. Since I'd caught his attention with my appearance, I knew he was still watching while I rummaged through my purse and then left it basically unattended next to me while I talked on the phone. Sure enough, he fell for it. While I was supposedly absorbed in my conversation with Lula, I noticed him making his way closer to me, with my big dark sunglasses hiding that I was tracking his progress. Eugene casually walked up to stand next to the bench. I pretended to not notice him as I 'focused' on my gossip fest.

Next thing I knew, he had a good grip on my purse and was starting to take off. Shit, he was even faster than I'd thought! I stood and reached out barely in time to tag him on the wrist with the stun gun. He dropped like a ton of bricks and face planted into the sidewalk. I quickly took my purse out of his hand and dug out the hand cuffs. By the time Lula's Firebird screeched to a stop in front of us, I had him cuffed and was sitting on him. I had learned painfully from prior experience that everyone reacts differently to being stunned. I didn't want to take any chances on him getting away before Lula arrived.

Lula and I did a high-five and a little victory dance. We were attracting attention, but Lula let everyone in on the situation. "This here's a purse snatcher. My girl and I brought him down since he missed his court date. We're bounty hunters." Losing interest after that, the gawkers moved on. Thankfully Eugene was a little guy, because he still hadn't regained consciousness. We hefted him up between us and dragged him to the Firebird. We stuffed him into the backseat and took off for TPD. I was feeling pretty good. Connie, Lula, and I came up with a plan and executed it to perfection. No one was hurt and no one was covered in unidentified substances.

Before Lula dropped me off at home, we made plans with Connie to meet for drinks in a few hours after Connie got off work. I stripped out of my suit the minute I got in the apartment. After I showered, I wrapped a towel around my wet hair and pulled on a t-shirt that belonged to Ranger. I flopped onto my bed and laid in my thinking position. I needed to figure out what to do about Anthony and the drugs. I woke up a few hours later with no new ideas. I did the hair and makeup thing and chose a cute little black and white flowered sundress and black strappy sandals. I had just enough time to get to the bar to meet the girls without being late.


	15. Chapter 15

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Back in the Game

Ch15

Connie, Lula, and I had a nice celebratory girls' night out. I'm an alcohol lightweight so I nursed my single margarita all evening. It would have been fun to have another one, but I knew I'd be in no condition to drive if I did, even though we pigged out on bar food like nachos and buffalo wings. We parted ways after a few hours.

I used my key fob to unlock my Explorer. I hauled myself into the driver's seat and was startled when I saw movement in the passenger seat. I shrieked and flung open the car door, ready to haul ass back into the bar. A large hand clasped onto my wrist. "Babe."

"Shit, Ranger! I think you just took ten years off my life! Don't give me that being aware of my surroundings crap, either. What are you doing in my car?"

"I tried calling you a few times, Babe, and you didn't answer. I pulled up your GPS tracker and saw you were at a bar. I had one of the guys drop me off in case you needed me to drive you home."

I pulled out my phone and saw that I had it silenced. Sure enough, I'd missed some calls from Ranger. I wasn't thrilled that he had a tracker on me, but I was willing to live with it. This relationship with Ranger required me to make a few concessions. Having a tracker was one of them. I took a deep breath to calm my still racing heart and let it out slowly. I did it again a few more times.

"Babe, if you don't want me here just say so. I'll get someone to pick me up."

I guess he took my silence and deep breathing to mean that I was pissed at him for some reason. "No, Ranger, I always want you here with me. You just really scared the shit out of me. I'm trying to get my pulse rate down."

He reached over and took both my hands in his. He traced gentle circles on my palms and then lightly rubbed his hands up and down my bare arms. He leaned his face in to mine and kissed me gently. "Sorry, Babe. I don't want to scare you, ever."

After that kiss, my pulse hadn't slowed at all, but this time it was due to desire instead of fear which was much more acceptable. I fumbled with the keys and managed to get the right key in the ignition. I didn't ask Ranger where he wanted to go, I just drove us straight back to my house. We raced up the stairs after I parked in the garage. We barely got the door closed and all the locks engaged before we were on each other, stripping our clothes off as quickly as possible. We didn't even make it to the bed, this was fast and furious on the floor. We slept a while afterwards before waking up and climbing in bed. This time we made love slowly, taking our time to explore and appreciate each other.

The next morning I woke with a smile when Ranger kissed me awake. I'm not a morning person, but how could I not smile when I had Ranger bringing me to consciousness with his magic? I brushed my teeth and scraped my hair into a ponytail before dressing in jeans and a t-shirt. I applied a swipe of mascara and some lip gloss. Sliding my feet into flip-flops, I was ready to go. Because Ranger had been dropped off at the bar the night before, I offered to give him a ride back to Rangeman so he didn't have to bother one of his guys.

Since I was up so early and Lula wouldn't be coming to do yoga for a few more hours yet, I decided to get in a little shopping. I stopped at the grocery store and grabbed a cart. I stocked up on fruits and veggies, more for Rex and Ranger than myself. Cereal, peanut butter, olives, chips, beer, some frozen dinners, and a few boxes of Tasty Kakes filled my cart along with a few other basic necessities like milk. I felt a little bad that Doris' cooking lessons were going to waste now that I was back in Trenton, but I couldn't cook in the apartment anyway since there was no stove.

I decided to swing by the Tasty Pastry after I left the grocery store, even though it wasn't exactly on the way home. I felt like I deserved a little reward after getting the dreaded grocery shopping chore out of the way. I inhaled two soft and gooey Boston Cremes before I finally pulled back into my garage. I barely got all the bags hauled upstairs and the groceries put away before it was time for Lula to arrive.

I swapped my jeans for yoga pants just as she knocked on the door. Since she seemed to have mastered the beginning segment of the yoga DVD, I selected the intermediate workout today. Different and more difficult positions had Lula huffing and puffing, yet proud of herself by the end. I felt very relaxed when we finished. Lula and I did our water and coffee routine before she took off to start her day.

/

My shower was a few degrees below scalding, just the way I liked it. I had just finished drying my hair and was in the process of choosing my outfit for the day when my phone rang. My mom's picture and 'MOM' were on the screen when I looked at it. I answered and immediately held the phone away from my ear. "Stephanie, this is your mother!" she shrieked loudly. For some reason, my mother feels like she has to talk louder on cell phones so that the other person can hear her, and she feels the need to identify herself each and every time she calls.

"Yes, I know, Mom. I can hear you just fine. There's no need to yell. How are you this morning?"

In a quieter voice, she replied, "I just saw Mrs. Costello at the drugstore, Stephanie!"

"Okay," I answered. I didn't see where she was going with this.

"Stephanie, she bought enough gauze to wrap a mummy, as well as peroxide, rubbing alcohol, antibiotic cream, and a bunch of other first aid stuff. I don't think it was for herself. She also looked like she hasn't slept in days."

Ah-ha! Now I get it. Her slimy son was staying with her and she's treating his wound. That explains why I couldn't track him down at any of the hospitals. "Thank you, Mom! This was exactly the news I needed to hear! You rock!"

I could almost hear my mother blushing over the phone. "Oh, it was nothing, dear. I'm glad I could help you."

I promised to fill her in later on anything that happened. Dressing quickly, I grabbed my purse and keys and was out the door three minutes later. I whipped the Explorer out of the garage and barreled down the alley to the main street. My attempt to call Ranger to let him know what was going on resulted in me getting his voicemail. His phone was off. Shit. I tried again when I was about a block away from Mrs. Costello's house, and got voicemail again. This time I left him a message. If the worse happened, I knew I had a tracker and panic button in my purse, along with assorted self-defense tools.

I parked a few doors down from the house and took a deep breath. Mrs. Costello's house looked a lot like every other house on her street, but her windows were looking a little dirty, which was a huge 'Burg housewife no-no. Probably she didn't have time to wash her windows since she was taking care of her stupid son.

I knocked on the door and fixed a smile on my face. A minute or so later, I loudly knocked again. Finally, Mrs. Costello opened the door a crack. "Yes?" she asked in a quavery voice. Mom was right, she looked like shit. I'd stopped by to ask her about Anthony when I first found out it was his hand in my storage unit, but hadn't seen her since.

"Mrs. Costello, I'm sorry to bother you, but we really to talk. May I come in?" I asked with my most winsome smile.

"This really isn't a good time, Miss Plum." Okay, now I know he's in there. No 'Burg housewife worth her salt would ever deny a polite request for a conversation that doesn't take place on the front porch.

I deftly slid my foot in the door, in case she decided to try to slam the door in my face. "It's really important, ma'am. It won't take but a few minutes of your time."

Sure enough, she started to shut the door. She squeaked when it bounced off my steel toed CAT boot and swung back towards her face. She gave me a startled glance as I slipped through the door and closed it behind me. "You can't be in here!" she said frantically.

Omigod! The stench was horrific. My eyes started watering immediately and I fought back a gag. I've rolled in a lot of garbage over the years, and it didn't smell like that. I've also smelled more than a few dead bodies and this stench was different from the dead body smell. I cut my eyes over to Mrs. Costello and saw that she was in tears.

"I tried," she wailed. "I just don't know what to do for him! He refuses to go the hospital because of the cops. I tried to raise him right! I don't know where I went wrong." The woman was sobbing fully now.

"Where is he?" I asked her gently, while trying to breathe through my mouth. She pointed a shaking finger upstairs, so I started climbing the stairs, Mrs. Costello trailing after me.

I walked into a bedroom and saw Anthony laying on a bed. The odor was even stronger in there. His skin was grey and he had beads of sweat dripping off his face. His breathing was shallow and rapid, almost like he was panting. He looked at me with glassy eyes, but didn't say anything. He was shirtless and I could see that his arm was heavily bandaged where his hand should have been. The bandage was soaked through in a combination of blood and infection. He had red streaks shooting up his arm to his shoulder. This was bad.

I turned to Mrs. Costello and said calmly, "He has to go the hospital, ma'am." She shook her head, but I continued, "Do you want him to die? Because he's not going to last much longer here." I wasn't sure if that was actually the case or not, but he really did look like he was near death. She looked at him and then looked at me and nodded.

I stepped out of the room and called 911, requesting an ambulance. I told Mrs. Costello to go downstairs to open the door for the paramedics. After she left, I turned to Anthony.

"Anthony, my name is Stephanie Plum." He shifted his head in what I took to be a nod, so I continued. "I need to know where the drugs are, Anthony. People are going to get hurt if they aren't returned. Ivan was very clear on that when he threatened me."

Anthony's eyes turned fearful. "No, he'll kill me," he rasped softly.

"You're killing yourself by not going to the hospital. Tell me where the drugs are, now. Unlike you, I don't have a death wish."

"I can't."

"He'll come after your mother, if you don't give them back. Do you really want your mother dragged into this?" Okay, that might have been a fib, but it was plausible, right?

Anthony stared at me. I returned his stare, with what I hoped was a badass Ranger look on my face. It must have worked because he finally caved, which was good because I could hear the sirens getting close to the house. I bent down so that I could hear Anthony clearly. I repeated back the location to him to confirm what he told me and he nodded.

Just then the paramedics thundered up the stairs and burst into the room. They all had watering eyes like me and looked like they were practicing their mouth breathing techniques, too. I got shoved out of the way, so they could work on him. Before I left, I told Anthony I'd talk to Ivan and try to get him to leave Anthony and his mother alone. He nodded and I went downstairs. Mrs. Costello was a basket case. I called Mom to ask if she and Grandma could come over and help calm her down. I had drugs to track down.


	16. Chapter 16

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Back in the Game

Ch16

Mrs. Costello and I stepped out-of-the-way as the paramedics brought Anthony downstairs. I slipped out the back door to make a quick phone call. I wanted to let the DEA agent in charge of the case to know where to find Anthony. I got his voicemail, so left him a message. The agent would probably be pissed to find out that someone had gotten to the drugs before he could, but that was the way it was going to have to be. I didn't like giving the cocaine back to Ivan, but I liked living more. I hoped Anthony would keep his mouth shut long enough to find his stash and return it to Ivan.

I stepped back in the house, just as Mom and Grandma walked in. Mom immediately went into action, pulling Mrs. Costello back to the kitchen and putting the kettle on the stove to make tea. Grandma gave me a wink and made a shooing motion. I mouthed a thank you and darted out the front door before Mom noticed I was there.

The ambulance was just pulling away from the curb, sirens blasting, as I clattered down the front steps. I noticed two black vehicles streaking down the street towards the departing ambulance. They screeched to a halt just past Mrs. Costello's house, and backed up. Ah, Rangeman to the rescue. Ranger jumped out of the passenger side of one of the SUV's. Tank got out of the driver's seat and Bobby and Lester climbed out of the other vehicle. Wow, I got the whole core team!

I held my hands out and called out, "I'm fine!" They were all looking a little tense. Probably they thought it was me in that ambulance. In the past, that might have been the case.

"Babe, when you couldn't get me, why didn't you call the control room?" Ranger asked in a pained voice.

"I'm sorry. I was in such a hurry to get over here after Mom called me with her tip that it was all I could do to remember to call you. I really am sorry." And I was. I hated having the guys worry about me.

"When we saw that ambulance speed off, sirens blasting..." Tank started, and then just shook his head. I wrapped my arms around his middle and gave him a squeeze. Tank patted me on the back and then Bobby and Lester each gave me a hug before turning me over to Ranger. He wasn't usually into the whole PDA think in front of his men, but he wrapped me in his arms and pulled me tight against him and didn't let go. Guess I really did freak them out.

I explained about Anthony, and how I'd left the DEA agent in charge a voicemail with Anthony's whereabouts. I also told the guys that Anthony gave me the location for the stolen kilos of cocaine. We'd have never found them without his help. He picked a good hiding place.

"So," I started, chewing my lip. "You guys wanna come with me now to get the drugs and turn them over to Ivan Milovich? I'd rather not wait. I'm afraid Anthony will spill the beans to the DEA guy, and the DEA will get there first. That'd be a good thing most of the time, but I'm afraid of what Ivan would do to me if he didn't get his stuff back."

"Babe." I interpreted that to mean that they'd help me.

Lester confirmed my translation when he said, "Of course, Beautiful. Things are slow at the office today, anyway. This'll be fun!"

I wasn't sure about the fun part, but it would definitely be a relief to have this over with. I hesitated then said, "Am I doing the wrong thing here? I really don't like the idea of Ivan getting away with this, but I'm really afraid the cops aren't going to be able to help keep me safe. I don't want to be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life."

Tank offered, "How about we go see if Anthony was telling the truth first? If the coke is there, then we have a bargaining chip with the DEA guy. Maybe they can put a tracker on it or wire you so everything is recorded when you hand the coke off to Ivan."

This is why they make the big bucks. I liked this plan better. It soothed my conscience while still protecting my backside, hopefully. Ranger gave a tiny nod and said, "Let me make a few calls on the way over there and we'll try to set something up. The most important thing here is that Steph isn't on anyone's radar after this."

We piled into all three vehicles. Ranger rode with me back to my place, where we were leaving my Explorer in favor of taking the two Rangeman vehicles. Tank followed me down the alley and waited while I parked in the garage. Ranger rode up front and I hopped in the back.

While Tank drove towards the location Anthony gave me, Ranger was on the phone. He first called in some additional troops from Rangeman, for extra backup I guess. Next he called the DEA agent in charge of the case. The man actually answered this time. They talked for a few minutes and hung up. Ranger gave us a brief rundown about what was said.

"The agent got your voicemail and is at the hospital now. They're still working on Anthony, so he hasn't had a chance to talk to him yet, which is good for us. I wish a different agent had pulled this case, because this one's an ass and he's looking to get all the glory on this. I think we definitely need to get our hands on the drugs first otherwise he'll leave you hanging, Steph."

"Do you think it'd make a difference if I talked to Joe about it?"

"No. I know he's your ex and you guys are friendly, but he's a cop first. This is gonna be one of those legally gray things, Steph."

Twenty minutes later we pulled up to an abandoned house between Trenton and Newark. As we got close to the house, you could see quite a bit of fire damage. There were already three Rangeman vehicles parked behind the house, out of view of the road. It was a semi-rural area, not quite country, but not heavily populated either. The lot was maybe an acre in size and heavily wooded, so we'd have a little concealment from the neighbors.

After we all exited the vehicles, we stood at the back of the house. I looked at the house dubiously. "Do you think it's safe to go in? It looks pretty fragile from the fire damage."

"Anthony got in and out, so hopefully we can do the same," Lester replied, although he looked a little leery as well.

"He said the drugs are in the basement. Now we just have to figure out how to get down there without anyone getting hurt."

Ranger gave instructions for the guys to walk around the house and look for the safest place to enter. A minute later, one of the guys called out. We walked around the corner and I smiled in relief. We wouldn't have to enter the house to access the basement. There was an exterior entrance to the basement.

Tank and Lester snapped on latex gloves and pulled their Mag-lites out of their utility belts. I guess they were the ones going in. That worked for me. I wasn't all that enthusiastic about going into a dark creepy basement with the threat of the house collapsing on me. After the Stiva incident, I had a thing about dark enclosed spaces. Just before they started in, I had an idea. "Hold up a minute!"

Les and Tank both looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I continued, "Do you guys have any riot gear in the vehicles? I'm thinking a riot helmet might help protect your head in case something caves in. Maybe Kevlar vests could help, too?"

Ranger twitched his lips in an almost smile. "Good thinking, Steph." He jerked his head towards the SUVs and two of the guys took off to go look.

Tank shook his head slightly. "What?" I asked. "I don't want you to get hurt. Jeez."

"No, it's a good idea. You still surprise me sometimes, is all," Tank stated. I rolled my eyes in response. Soon the men returned carrying both helmets and vests. Tank and Les donned the gear and started down the steps.

I shifted from foot to foot and twisted a curl that had escaped my ponytail. Ranger grabbed my hand and pulled me close. "They'll be okay," he reassured me.

After what seemed like an eternity, Lester and Tank re-emerged from the darkness of the basement. They were each carrying several wrapped bundles that looked exactly like what was found in my storage unit. I sighed in relief. I was glad Anthony hadn't been jerking me around. "Is that all of them?"

"Yep, Beautiful, this is it." Lester smiled at me and I beamed back at him.

"Okay then, what's next? Do we do the tracker and wire thing or should we call the DEA agent first?"

"We're going back to Rangeman first and then we'll discuss it," Ranger stated. "I don't want to be out in the open with this quantity of cocaine any longer than necessary."

We all piled back into the vehicles and started a convoy back to Rangeman. It felt a little like it did back when we were all on high alert with the stash of gold in the basement of my house in Jacksonville. Tank and Ranger had their guns out and ready as Tank drove us back to the office. Bobby and Les were behind us and another Rangeman vehicle was in front of us.

Finally we pulled into the garage. While we were driving, I'd emptied out a few duffel bags in the back of the vehicle. First aid supplies and extra gear littered the cargo area. I stuffed the drugs into the duffel bags so we could be a little discreet when we entered the building. Ranger and Tank each grabbed a duffel and directed us into the elevator. We headed down to one of the basement levels and exited into an area I'd never seen.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"We use this level to store things, or people, we don't want anyone to know about. Tank and I are the only ones with access. Please don't say anything about it to anyone. We'll leave the drugs here for now," Ranger answered. Ranger pressed his thumb into a scanner and then entered a combination on a keypad. He finished by using a key to unlock what looked like a complicated bolt system. Finally, the door swung open to reveal a tiny room lined completely in steel. It looked like a bank vault. Tank and Ranger dumped the bags on the floor and Ranger locked up.

We took the elevator up to the fifth floor. It felt like the end was finally almost in sight. Anthony had been located. The drugs were in my, well Rangeman's, possession. Now we needed to form a plan to get the drugs back to Ivan, while helping the DEA get evidence to arrest Ivan. All in all, not a bad day.


	17. Chapter 17

Author Note: As always, I love reading your reviews. Thank also for all of you that have favorited the story or are following it!

/

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Back in the Game

Ch17

Ranger, Tank, Lester, Bobby, and I reconvened in the fifth floor conference room after the drugs were deposited in a basement vault. The goal now was to come up with a firm plan to get the drugs back to Ivan while hopefully helping the DEA to nail Ivan. We'd tossed some ideas around after Anthony was hauled away in the ambulance and before we actually retrieved the cocaine. Now was the time to get everything settled before we called the DEA agent and Ivan. I'd like to say I was an active participant in this discussion, but I'd be lying. The truth was that after all the excitement of the day, I was beat.

The next thing I knew, a hand was shaking my shoulder. I mumbled, "Yeah," and kept my eyes shut. The hand shook me harder and I squinted out of one eye. Hunh. Apparently the meeting was over. I pried open my other eye and realized I was still sitting in my chair, but my cheek was resting on the tabletop. I attempted to lift my head and heard an icky squelching sound. I heard a chuckle behind me as I lifted a hand to my face and felt the wetness. Oh great, I'd drooled all over myself. What an attractive and professional picture I must have made! I groaned and thumped my head back down on the table.

"Babe, let's go. You can go back to sleep upstairs if you want, but Ella has dinner ready."

I perked up a little at this nugget of information. Ella is a goddess of the culinary arts and I was always ready to eat when I knew she was the cook. Ella was even known to make contraband dessert when she knew I was in the building. I allowed Ranger to pull me to my feet and guide me to the elevator. We rode silently up to the seventh floor with my back plastered to his front. The second Ranger opened the door to his apartment, we were assaulted by the mouthwatering scents of Ella's cooking.

After polishing off a very tasty meal of chicken and whole wheat pasta and chocolate mousse, I had my second wind. I asked for a recap of the meeting, since I'd drifted off to sleep shortly after it started. I still felt bad about zoning out of the meeting, but at least this way I missed all the boring discussion and just got the final decisions.

The decision was made that each of the kilos of cocaine would be carefully injected with a new state-of-the-art tracking gizmo. The device was so tiny that it would be difficult to detect with the naked eye and even be could be implanted under a person's skin with a needle and syringe. Ranger sort of glossed over how he'd acquired that many of the trackers, just saying something about Rangeman doing some product testing for the government. The little GPS gizmos would make it possible to keep an eye on all of the drugs after they were turned over to Ivan, sort of like a long-range sting operation. It was decided it would be fairly obvious to put a tracker in a duffel bag with the drugs, plus the bag would probably be gotten rid of quickly. Trackers in the drug packages themselves would hopefully evade detection longer.

I would be wearing a new kind of wireless transmitter. I'd have a few of them incorporated into my hair tie, my earrings, my watch, and the eyelet of my sneakers. The hope was that even if a transmitter or two were discovered if Ivan's goons searched me, they might miss one. The idea of Ivan or his goons touching me made me slightly nauseous, but I knew Ranger wouldn't let anything too horrible happen to me, even though I tended to be a bit of a disaster magnet.

Ranger had decided to go over the glory hound DEA agent's head and spoke with the supervisory agent in charge of the local field office. Apparently the guy owed Ranger a favor from some op back in Ranger's murky past. This was actually doing the DEA a favor, so Ranger's contact told him that he would still owe Ranger after this. This part made me happy. I wouldn't have to worry about being in trouble with law enforcement after this was over and I didn't have to worry about law enforcement contributing to my demise either, since Ranger's contact gave the go-ahead for Rangeman to control the op with the DEA waiting in the wings to make any arrests.

The next step was to set up a meet with Ivan Milovich. Using my special Ivan Phone, with Ranger recording the conversation for future prosecution, I made the call even though it was getting late. Ivan answered after the first ring.

"Stephanie Plum! Since you are calling me, I hope to hear some good news. Do you have something for me?"

"Um, yeah," I replied eloquently. I didn't have to fake the unease in my voice. I'd never met the man face to face, but his voice gave me the creeps. "So what now?" I asked

"You will bring my stuff back to me, Stephanie. I will give you an address to meet with some of my associates to make the exchange."

That didn't sound like a good plan to me, or Ranger either, going by the shake of his head. "I don't think so, Ivan. I will bring the drugs to you, not your buddies."

"Are you questioning me?"

"Yeah, I guess I am. I've gone through a lot of work to find your drugs. I've been stressed out all week that I wouldn't find them in time to prevent you from hurting or killing me. You've had your goons damage my car on two occasions. I think I've earned the right to meet you in person." I really didn't want to meet him in person, but I guess I had to play my role.

"Maybe you're right. I would like to be able to say I've met the infamous Bomshell Bounty Hunter of Trenton. I wonder if you look even better than your pictures in the newspaper." Oh, ick.

"So what's the plan, Ivan? I really want to get this cocaine as far away from me as possible. It's making me really uncomfortable."

"The plan remains the same except that I will join my associates at the meeting."

I looked at Ranger and he nodded, so I asked, "Okay, so what's the address? And how soon can we get this thing over with?"

Ivan gave me an address in Newark and set the time for three in the morning, just about six hours away, and disconnected. That wasn't a lot of time, but Rangeman was very good at this kind of thing. I had no doubt that they could get everything in position by then. As soon as Ivan disconnected, Ranger sprang into action. He disconnected the recording device from the phone and plugged it into his laptop to download the conversation. He emailed it to the head DEA guy in Trenton and then called him to let him know the plan.

He took me downstairs to the supply room to get me geared up with my tech stuff. He brought a pair of my sneakers downstairs with him, so Hector could attach the little GPS and wireless transmitter thingy to the eyelet of the shoe. Ranger pulled open a drawer and lifted out a stainless steel ladies' watch, a hair band made of very thick elastic, and a pretty little pair of intricate silver earrings. It was hard to believe that they all contained high tech gadgets.

After I got wired for sound, we went upstairs to five to meet in the conference room with the guys Ranger chose for this little operation. I was kinda surprised to see how few people there were. It was only Ranger, Lester, Tank, Bobby, Hector, and Manny. I guess with their skills, they didn't need any more people.

A satellite map of the Newark neighborhood where the drop would be done was projecting onto one of the white walls of the room. The guys discussed areas of concealment and the best route to get in and out without getting ambushed. As they started getting into the technical details, I tuned them out. I didn't understand what they were talking about anyway. I got into my own version of a zone and studied the map. It was in a mixed industrial and low income residential area near Ivan's storage unit distribution center. Ivan was definitely going to be in his territory. My guys were going to have their work cut out for them keeping me safe. I didn't trust Ivan as far as I could throw him. Since I had zero upper body strength, I couldn't throw him at all.

Bobby and Hector silently departed a little later, to go do some recon before the main event. I gave Ranger a gesture showing him that I was going back up to seven. He nodded in reply and turned back to his tactical planning with Tank, Lester, and Manny. Once back on seven, I went straight for the fridge and pulled out the last dish of chocolate mousse that Ella left with our dinner. Desperate times call for extra dessert in my book. I practically inhaled the treat and contemplated licking the bowl before deciding that might be overkill. I rinsed the dish and then flopped on Ranger's bed in my thinking position, trying to settle my nerves.

Ranger woke me up a little before one o'clock. I laced up my special sneakers and took out my sagging ponytail. After brushing my hair, I pulled my hair back again and secured it with my new hair tie. I donned the watch and earrings. Finally, I added two extra coats of mascara for a little boost to my courage. I checked that I still had all my self defense stuff in my purse. The whole process took about fifteen minutes.

Neither of us said a word as we rode the elevator down to the vault to retrieve the bags. The drugs had already been injected with their trackers and were placed in generic blue duffel bags. The bags were placed temporarily in the back of a Rangeman SUV. Ranger drove us to my house to get my Explorer. He pulled the Rangeman SUV into my garage next to my Explorer and shut the garage door behind us. We quickly transferred the bags to the back of my Explorer and then it was time to leave for Newark. Ranger gave me a quick hug and kiss before we parted ways, each getting into our own vehicle.

Before I knew it, we were in Newark. I had about fifteen minutes before the meet. I knew Hector and Bobby were in the area somewhere. Ranger was giving me a little pep talk as I drove around the neighborhood, trying to get acquainted with the area at the last minute. Lester, Tank, and Manny were secreted very close to the address of the drop. Ranger was roaming the neighborhood like me.

At 2:58, my Ivan Phone rang. I put him on speaker phone as I answered so the various mics on my body could pick up what was being said. "Ivan," I said in greeting.

"Stephanie Plum, I know you're in the neighborhood. Are you doing a little sightseeing?"

"Just killing time before three o'clock. Are you ready?"

"I'm here, waiting for you, Stephanie. Come on over." Ivan hung up and I released a shaky breath.

"You can do this," I told myself. "Ranger believes in you." I repeated my little mantra several times until I turned into the driveway of the house where we were meeting. The area was mostly deserted this time of night. I wiped my clammy hands on my jeans and stepped out of the vehicle. I hugged my purse tightly to my side as I slowly made my way up the sidewalk to the front door. I knocked sharply and a slimy looking man who bore a striking resemblence to my cousin Vinnie opened the door.


	18. Chapter 18

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Back in the Game

Ch18

The man who looked like Vinnie was slim and slimy and looked like a ferret. He even dressed like Vinnie, tight polyester slacks and pointy toed shoes. Unfortunately, the man was not Vinnie. My cousin may be a sleaze ball and a lower life form from a rotten branch of my family tree, but he's my cousin and wouldn't intentionally cause me physical harm. I had my doubts with this guy.

"Stephanie!" he exclaimed, his voice immediately letting me know this was Ivan.

"Ivan," I said tersely. "Let's get this over with, please."

"Oh, come now. You don't want to chat a bit first?" the creep smirked at me.

"Sorry, I think I'll pass. You want your drugs back, right?"

"Of course. Why don't you come inside so we can chat. My men will unload my stuff from you car."

I know I'm not the smartest person in the world, but even I knew it was a dumb idea to go in the house. "No, I'm okay out here. I'll help your guys get the cocaine, that way we'll be done faster."

"No. You stay here with me." For the first time, Ivan lost his nasty little smile and a look of menace crossed his face.

"Ivan, what's going on?" I asked nervously. "I brought you your drugs back, just like you asked. There isn't really anything to talk about, I don't think."

"How did you find them?"

"I found Anthony, he was pretty close to death, and convinced him to tell me where he hid his haul. I made sure Anthony got to the hospital to get medical treatment and then I went out to an abandoned, burned out house between here and Trenton. The drugs were in the basement, right where Anthony told me they were." That was the truth. I didn't think it was necessary to mention Mrs. Costello or the Rangeman guys. Probably I should keep details like those to myself.

"Hmm," Ivan gave me a look like he knew there was more to the story. I gave him a weak smile in return.

"Are we done here? Because I really want to go home and forget this ever happened," I said. "If it wasn't bad enough that I returned a bunch of cocaine to a drug dealer, now I have to worry about the DEA finding out that I hindered their investigation by returning the drugs to you and not telling them that I found the drugs."

"Why, Stephanie, you sound like you don't like me very much."

"I don't know you, but I imagine you're probably a dangerous guy. I'm really trying to keep the drama out of my life these days, which means staying away from dangerous people."

"You'd be right about the danger. You wouldn't try to double cross me would you, Stephanie?"

Shit, yeah! "Of course not, Ivan. I like my extremities attached to my body, especially after seeing Anthony. How exactly did Anthony manage to lose his hand?"

"Anthony was a former employee and knew about various aspects of my business. One of his friends was still an employee of mine at the time of the theft and told him about the shipment coming in. Anthony decided to help himself to my property. My guys caught him in the act, but he managed to get away. Needless to say, his friend won't be working for me or anyone else now." Probably Anthony's friend was dead.

While Ivan was telling me about how Anthony got his hand separated from his body, one of his men came back out of the house. His guys had unloaded the duffel bags from my Explorer and moved them into the house while Ivan and I were talking on the porch. He handed Ivan one of the wrapped kilos. "The duffel bags didn't show any sign of tracking devices, Boss. The kilos look like they haven't been tampered with either. Do you want me to cut one open to make sure the product is intact?"

Ivan turned the package over in his hands, inspecting it closely under the porch light. I mentally crossed my fingers, praying that he wouldn't find the pinprick hole where the GPS tracker had been injected. The Rangeman crew was good at their jobs, so I was hopeful Ivan wouldn't find the evidence of tampering. Finally Ivan handed the package back to his guy. "Looks good to me except for Anthony's blood being all over it. Leave the blood. It'll let the dealers know what happens to people who cross me."

"So we're good?" I questioned. "Can I go now?"

"You may go. I'll be keeping an eye on you though. I wouldn't want you to get any ideas about turning me over to the DEA."

"I won't talk to them. I'd have to explain how I neglected to tell them I found the drugs and returned them to you. I'm pretty sure I could go to jail for that and I really don't want to go to jail. I'm sure you understand."

"I do. I'll still be watching you, just in case."

"Alrighty then. I'm just gonna go now. Bye!" I gave them a finger wave and walked backwards to my Explorer. I didn't feel comfortable turning my back on these people. I started the engine and looked up as I put the vehicle in reverse. Ivan and his goon were standing on the porch, staring at me. I backed out of the driveway quickly and then sped off down the street. I wound around the neighborhood, backtracking several times until I was convinced I wasn't being followed. I didn't stop until I reached the bright lights of an open McDonald's, halfway back to Trenton.

I pulled into the parking lot, parked directly under a light pole, and rested my head on the steering wheel. All of a sudden, all I could think about was sleeping. I let out a shriek when someone knocked on my window. I looked up and saw Ranger. I hit the button to unlock the doors and he slipped into the passenger seat. I threw myself across the console into his lap. He pulled me into a hug and I relaxed. "Proud of you, Babe," he whispered into my hair. His voice was so low, it barely registered. He got us both out of the Explorer and I noticed Hector waiting outside. "Hector's gonna check your car for bugs and tracking devices."

I nodded and allowed Ranger to lead me into the McDonald's. He stood outside the restroom door as I splashed cold water on my face. When I came out, he led me to a table in the back of the restaurant. One of the guys had ordered food, which was sitting on the table. I was shocked that Ranger would even step foot inside of a McDonald's, let alone allow the guys to order me junk food. The tray contained a burger, fries, cookies, and a big milkshake. I looked at him with both eyebrows raised.

"I know you need comfort food, Babe. I don't like what you consider comfort food, but I'm not going to argue about this. Just eat." I chowed down and within minutes had completely demolished everything on the tray. I finished slurping up the last bit of my shake as Hector came inside.

"All good, Boss" he said in heavily accented English.

Ranger shook his head in response. "This guy's an idiot. Ivan had the perfect opportunity to plant something in your vehicle and he wasted it."

We left the restaurant and I handed Ranger my keys. He drove us back to Trenton, while I dozed in the passenger seat. I woke up when Ranger pulled into the garage on Haywood. Ranger had decided that we'd stay on seven tonight. I didn't object. Ranger's apartment always made me feel safe, plus it was very, very late or very, very early depending on how you looked at it. I fell into bed and curled into Ranger's side. When I woke next, it was nine o'clock and Ranger was just coming out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his lean hips. I looked at him in confusion.

"It was a late night. I do sleep in, when it's warranted," he replied to my unvoiced question. "Get cleaned up. We have a meeting at ten and your presence is mandatory. Ella already brought breakfast." Ranger disappeared into his closet to choose his outfit for the day. I disappeared into the bathroom to take a quick shower.

After eating a healthy meal of turkey bacon and an omelette made of egg whites and spinach, I was ready to go. Ranger had already gone down to his office, so I gathered my belongings and headed down to five. I took a minute to call Lula, to apologize for missing our workout today. She was okay with it, and told me that she'd jogged all on her own. I was impressed!

The meeting was set to start in a few minutes in the conference room. Ranger and I walked into the room to find it occupied by Hector, Manny, Lester, Tank, and Bobby. They were the guys involved in last night's operation. There was also a guy I didn't know seated in the corner. He stood when Ranger entered the room, and Ranger went to shake his hand. Ranger introduced us. This was the head DEA agent in Trenton, the one who was going to keep the glory hound DEA guy from throwing me to the wolves.

We sat down and Hector got all his audio-visual evidence from the night before ready for presentation. I was so relieved to have my part in this over. While I still had no interest in living the 'Burg housewife lifestyle, I had gotten used to living a mostly danger-free life in the past year or so. All that was left now was for the DEA and Rangeman to coordinate on the evidence and takedown. I wasn't even sure why I was in this meeting, except that I was nosey and wanted to know how it all turned out. I sat back and waited to have my curiousity satisfied.


	19. Chapter 19

Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Back in the Game

Ch19

A few weeks passed before the dust finally settled on the case. The DEA took possession of the recordings from my conversations with Ivan on the phone and the from the night I handed over the drugs. Ivan worked quickly after I left and the kilos of cocaine were distributed across Newark, Trenton, and Philadelphia. The DEA was able to make a bunch of arrests based on the information from the tiny little GPS trackers inside the kilos.

Ivan Milovich was arrested a few days after he distributed the cocaine. Ivan apparently put two and two together and figured out that I was part of the reason he was in jail. He was an idiot, but even idiots get the right answers sometimes. I should have known that it wouldn't end quietly after I returned his drugs. It had gone too smoothly and things never usually go smoothly for me.

Right after his arrest, I received a bunch of threatening messages. Several were voicemails left on the Ivan Phone. Some were pictures of severed hands sent as multimedia text messages on the Ivan Phone. Several were notes or photos of bloody hands left on my car when I was out and about. Once I got a picture of my head photoshopped onto a dead, bloody body. I was followed at various times by a crappy rust and white Crown Vic. It had obviously been a cop car in its former life. The two men in the car were Eastern European in appearance and both looked exceptionally menacing. They never laid a hand on me, or even said a word to me, but they really freaked me out. The constant, implied threat was almost worse than actually being physically harmed. Almost. I guess it was kinda like psychological torture. Strangely, though, nothing ever happened at my house even though it wasn't a secret where I lived.

I had Ranger or one of the Merry Men with me at all times. I spent my nights safely locked up with Ranger in his seventh floor apartment on Haywood. I was worried I'd have to testify against Ivan and then go into the Witness Protection Program or something, but my worries were for nothing. Ivan was killed in jail a week after his arrest. He'd been denied bail so he was stuck in jail. He was shanked, supposedly by a member of a rival drug cartel that Ivan's crew had several prior bloody run-ins with. I found his death suspiciously convenient, considering the threats, but didn't want to examine the circumstances too closely and I made sure to ask no questions. I wasn't sad that he was dead and the threats stopped after his death.

Anthony managed not to die. Even though he initially only lost his hand, the doctors ended up taking most of his arm. Since he didn't seek professional medical care immediately, infection set in and destroyed a lot of bone and tissue. He experienced a little brain damage from the infection spreading through his body and running a high fever unchecked for several days. He wasn't in a coma or anything, but he had some issues and he'd need to live at home so his mother could take care of him. His criminal days were over. His mom got him a job as a bag boy at the supermarket and she took him to work each day and then picked him up after his shift. I'm still not sure how he avoided going to jail. Maybe the powers that be decided that he had been punished enough with all his physical and mental problems.

/

After the Ivan and Anthony debacle was cleared up, life returned to normal. Or as normal as my life can get, anyway. With everything going on, I'd forgotten that Jimmy, Doris' grandson, had come to Trenton to interview with Rangeman. I got a call from Doris a few weeks later telling me that Jimmy got the job! I was excited to have two of my friends coming to live in Trenton in the near future.

Jeff and his crew were making excellent progress on the renovation of my house. If they continued at their current pace, they should be finished in the next few weeks. The women in my life, Mom, Grandma, Val, Mary Lou, Connie, and even Lula, were excited at the prospect of helping me decorate. They came over and brought paint samples and fabric swatches and argued the merits of their own personal choices. It was getting a little out of hand. My own plan was to pick paint colors so Jeff could get the job finished. After that, I'd tackle the decorating part one room at a time, at my own pace. There was no rush, in my mind. Hopefully my plan would win out, especially since it was my house. Who would have thought I'd be surrounded by so many strong-willed women?

One thing struck me after the Ivan investigation was over. I liked the thrill of the hunt. I wasn't too keen on the whole danger thing, but I did enjoy the chase. I didn't need to work another day in my life if I didn't want to, but I knew I'd get bored if I didn't find something to do. A plan formed in my head. I did some discreet research and I put out a few feelers. When I decided that my plan was doable, it was time to let my family and Ranger in on my idea.

I dragged Ranger to dinner at my parents' house. Val and Albert and the kids were there too, so it was kind of a zoo. After dessert, I cleared my throat and asked for everyone's attention. Mom got a hopeful, excited look on her face. I knew she was hoping I'd be announcing an engagement or something, but she was doomed to disappointment. When all eyes were on me, I started my little speech.

"I've decided to start my own business," I started. There was silence from the peanut gallery, so I continued. "I'm going to be a private investigator. I like discovering secrets and chasing down information. I'm good at it, too. In theory, it should be a lot safer than bounty hunting. For right now, I plan to work out of my garage apartment. It'll be a one woman office for now. I plan to focus my business mostly on the 'Burg, although I'll work anywhere in Trenton." I stopped talking and looked around the table. I saw a mixture of expressions on everyone's faces.

Finally, Mom spoke up. "I think that's a good idea, Stephanie. You really are good at finding things out."

Grandma added, "I bet I could be a real good detective. You sure you don't need a partner, baby granddaughter?"

This wasn't a bad idea, despite what you might be thinking. "Actually, I might. Maybe not an actual partner, Grandma, but more like an informant. You and Mom and Dad, and even Val, could keep your eyes and ears open when I have a case that might tie into your networks. Kind of like how you called me when you saw Mrs. Costello at the drug store, Mom. That was perfect!"

Mom blushed at my comment. "Oh it was nothing, dear." We discussed my business plans a little more before it was time to leave for the evening. Mom sent me home with a large paper bag of leftovers.

On the way back to my house, Ranger was in his zone. He hadn't said anything at dinner. I wasn't sure what he thought about my plan. I was pretty fidgety by the time he parked in my garage. After we got upstairs, I couldn't take it anymore. "Ranger, what do you think of my plan?"

He stared at me for a minute, then gifted me with a mega-watt smile. "I think it's a good idea. It suits you. Proud of you, Babe." We celebrated by going to bed where Ranger worked his own unique form of mind-blowing magic. As we drifted off to sleep, I whispered, "I love you Batman."

"Love you too, Wonder Woman. Or should I say, P.I. Plum?" was the sleepy reply.

The End

/

Author Note: Thank you for following along with me on this story. I had fun writing it, even if my muse did do a few disappearing acts along the way. I have a few story ideas rattling around in my head revolving around Steph's new career as a private investigator, maybe a series of shorts. Is this something that would interest you, my wonderful readers?


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